The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Michigan is the best team in the Big Ten since the 1977 Indiana team. You can't say they didn't earn it, they had to win at Breslin, Carver, and Illinois. They would still win the Big Ten outright if you only counted the games that Michigan won by double digits. It was Yaxel's deep shooting that propelled Michigan when they weren't shooting well. Michigan felt mortal with Tschetter at the four but MSU didn't exactly take advantage of that time. There were a lot of 1-on-1 opportunities, Michigan only had 12 assists. 1.27 PPP is crazy against Michigan State. Where does Yaxel Lendeborg rank all time amongst all Michigan players? They had a reel prepared for when Fears would kick someone in the jingle jangles, and it did happen. Credit Dusty for keeping the team calm when things start to go wrong. How is Fears allowed to keep playing the way he does? Congrats to Nebraska for getting the #2 seed. 

Starts at 32:06

A very slow game and a very annoying win. Their thing is fouling you constantly and hoping the refs don't call it. They fired Fran and we hate Iowa basketball now. Michigan finally gets some calls in the second half and turns the ball over a lot. Bennett Stirtz's 4-14 from three feels optimistic for him given the shot quality. There was a "sink or swim" moment when Cadeau had to sit out and it wasn't great. Cadeau played 30 minutes but in an important tournament setting he'll probably play more than that. Roddy Gayle has some at-the-rim difficulties that have lasted most of the conference season. Fran McCaffery was a beautiful Big Ten coach and now he's in the Ivy League.

Starts at 54:05

How excited is everyone for this spring practice? What will Bryce's role as a runner be? JJ didn't run much but in the championship season there were only 4-5 games where he would have needed to. Maybe Bryce looks a little better throwing downfield now that he has actual receivers. JJ Buchanan might have a Colston Loveland level catch radius. There was a moment of silence for Max Bredeson but we truncate silence on this podcast so you didn't hear it. What's the tight end depth going to look like? Evan Link to guard? We're expecting a big third year swing for Blake Frazier. 

Starts at 1:22:09 Any sort of news about John Henry Daley being able to play would be high on the list. And Rod Moore. Also hoping to hear good things about Palepale and Cam Brandt. The North Dakota State linebacker (Nathaniel Staehling) transfer could be really good, he was a captain and these scenarios often work out nicely. Ideally he's the 3rd linebacker because that means some other guys popped off. How much much better will everyone look with better coaching? Unfortunately we won't be able to see if rotation on defense gets better in the Spring Game. Could Shamari Earls overtake Jyaire Hill? New kickers but kicking in April seems different than in the Fall. Looking forward to punting drills. Taylor Tatum for punt return?   

MUSIC:

• "Any Major Dude"—Steely Dan
• "Believe"—My Morning Jacket
• "Broken Chair"—Luna
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Illinois game: Impressed that they not just shut down Wagler with Yax but they hunted Wagler defensively. They're not physical enough to play defense and not quick enough to guard point guards—Dent did it to them, Fears did it to them.
• Why didn't Illinois shoot us out of their building if they're five out? Mara was everywhere on defense, Boswell was left to shoot.
• When Boswell got downhill he gave Cadeau issues. That's something to watch out for because burlyguards on top of a five-out offense are able to score vs M.
• Yax went off-script to switch on defense.
• MSU the second-best team in the Big Ten; Illinois is going to get physicaled out of the Tournament.
• Rez was lit, and that maybe lit up Mara. When Mara gets himself to the rim he's unstoppable.
• What do you do when someone takes away what you want to be?
• Cason: Problem with losing him is ^. He was our answer. Best finisher on the team, critical in transition. Like with Rez last year, the play that he got injured on was the play that shows you who he is.
• Replacing Cason: Cadeau has to back off to play 30 minutes.
• Minutes-wise Trey and Gayle. Usage-wise, Yaxel can do more in transition and hunting his own buckets, want to run more offense through Mara.
• Gayle would be nice—he's been that before—but he hasn't been good this year. McKenney is not a creator at all at this point. If they play without Cadeau opponents are going to blitz the ball. When that's Mara...good luck.
• Who's the Big Ten PoY: Two different questions: Who's the best player in the Big Ten this year? Yaxel or Wagler, and Yax's defense puts him over the top for me. Who's going to win it? Probably Braden Smith, even though he's < Stirtz and Boyd and Wagler and Yax, because the Big Ten is an old boy's network. The way Michigan can switch is because Yax can guard all of the guards.
• Iowa: Concern is we're playing a mini-Nebraska on the road. Stirtz and the Drakes make me nervous because can play like Nebraska but with more depth. They'll go with their stretch five and play small. Globetrotter-esque: duck inside the perimeter to pass out to duck inside to pass out until they find a cutter.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Mykonos" -- Fleet Foxes
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Hail to the Big Ten champions... before March! Dusty in year two has won at Mackey, Breslin, and whatever Illinois' arena is nicknamed. This was supposed to be a scary game and it wasn't even close, the players loved the energy. The major bummer is that LJ Cason is out for the year with an ACL injury. Can Yaxel check a top five draft point guard? Yes. No turnovers for Cadeau! But he probably has to go from 26 minutes per game to 35 and needs to be much more careful about foul trouble now. It just felt like Illinois had to work so hard to get anything in the second half and they weren't used to that. Illinois played their much better defender for only 10 minutes. Shot volume was similar for both teams but Michigan was able to win from 2-point shots.

Starts at 25:20

Minnesota comes in with basically no basketball team, they're down on their luck. But they played zone better than a lot of teams on Michigan's schedule. In the first half Michigan had trouble getting to the rim so they kicked it out for open threes. Parts of it felt bad. This game felt like playing Maryland the week before Ohio State. Niko Medved did a great job with what he had, Brian is still high on him. Early in the season Iowa seemed like it would be a really tough game, now Iowa is tailspinning a little bit. Iowa's defense is improved from Fran but not in a way that will stop Michigan. Michigan is still probably a #1 seed if they lose out. They should raise the banner in Michigan State's face at pre-game. 

Starts at 43:34

Takes hotter than Morez Johnson sitting in front of that crowd and being like "I don't care, I'm gonna be the Kenpom MVP in a 20 point win spiritually because I'm Morez Johnson and nothing phases me at all!" Michigan splits against Minnesota, which almost didn't matter until Michigan State only got two points against Ohio State. This team is a little too Jekyll & Hyde. Starting the Thursday game 1-9 in shots isn't great. Powerplays used to be more whizz-bang and they've been lacking lately. Michigan's defense is like Nebraska running the triple option - they always need to have a 5'2" puck wizard defenseman. MSU's coach tried to chase down an official on the ice which is a silly thing to attempt. Michigan is up two points in the standings but Michigan State has two more games. Time for another year of complaining about the NCAA hockey tournament format.

Starts at 1:15:10 Baseball - good Softball - not good Gimmicky Top Five Things You'd Change in the Winter Olympics. Normal guy Olympics. Mountaineering should include getting a kid into ski gear. We don't talk about ski injuries. Winter beach volleyball?   

MUSIC:

• "Don't Fight It"—Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry
• "Better Way"—Motenko
• "Take My Heart"—The Teskey Brothers
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Minnesota game: Just shooting over zone. Credit to Medved.
• Duke: Shouldn't give Szelc an opportunity to give Mara phantom fouls.
• Want to see us using our size better. Duke was suped up UCLA. Dusty will figure it out.
• Illinois: Huge, best offense in the history of Kenpom. Don't have a defensive center. Ivisics are stretch bigs.
• UCLA beat Illinois: When you play the three game you add randomness.
• Minnesota: Their fans should be happy about Nedved. Ran a zone well, slowed the game down, never got a 2nd shot. Good strategy.
• In break: Talking great families/USA Hockey.
• Hockey: Split with Wisconsin means they can't win the B10 regular season crown. Lack that one elite talent. Will be shipped out East because all four 1-seeds are Western teams. Congrats ND for two key Michigan injuries and stealing some points to create this result.
• WBB crazy game. Shout out to Macy Brown for sticking around to be there in OT. Locked in a 2-seed.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Can't Catch Up" -- Rehab
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

The Duke game was annoying and non-impactful so let's start with Purdue. Purdue comes out to a 5-0 start, Michigan then goes on a 42-17 run. Mackey exploded no matter what, even when Michigan was up 16. Matt Painter is a dude who respects ball. Mara foreshadowed the Duke game by getting into foul trouble, but that wasn't until the 2nd half, otherwise he had a great 1st half. The other subplot of this game was they shot 57% from three, and almost all of them were good shots. Trey Kauffmann-Renn went off for Purdue, historically May has let him go defensively though. Michigan is doing a great job of making the non-contestable guys contestable. What was funnier, the Fletcher Loyer heat-check airball or Cadeau getting to the free throw line and not knowing what to do? 

Starts at 22:55

A very frustrating game. Mara picks up three first half fouls, the first two of which were not fouls. Playing three bigs in the second half felt like an impulse. Will Tschetter has been a faithful companion for this program but this wasn’t the game for him. Duke went on their end of first half run when Michigan had their small lineup out there. Dusty is usually very calm but he was on the verge of eruption. The official in this game notoriously call more calls than anyone else and didn’t give us a proper Michigan Duke game. You can just give the coach an iPad to decide if you want to challenge calls?? Does Mara need a little more self-confidence? His body language is telling. Michigan didn't get a lot out of guard play. Their quality of looks in this game were nowhere near their looks in the Purdue game. They got out of balance with their lineup changes and shot 24% from three but still only lost by five to Duke so this really isn't that concerning. What was that travel call? LJ Cason is definitely a contested shot guy. Michigan's biggest win over the weekend was UCLA over Illinois. The Minnesota game is for a share of the title, two Big Ten wins means an outright title. Brian still can't believe how good Keaton Wagler is. 

Starts at 55:40

Takes hotter than yours truly after Mara's second foul against Duke. Michigan gets a split out of Wisconsin which ends any hope of catching Michigan State in the Big Ten standings. Wisconsin played their backup goalie and Michigan didn't do enough to threaten him. Kason Muscutt got his first goal. BTN+ has announcers that don't even know Michigan's roster. Michigan could get to 51 points after next week which would win the Big Ten in most years. They have a 99.6% chance of being a #1 seed, they would need to win the Big Ten Tournament to get the #1 overall. #2 overall could get Saint Thomas? 

Starts at 1:24:57 Hughe's got it better than us? Michigan shouldn't claim Jack Hughes. Great performances from Michigan hockey players in the Olympics and the gold medal game. Michigan doesn't have these guys on this team (Michigan State doesn't either, though). Canada was sad and then got handed a stuffed stoat. If you haven't seen the figure skating exhibition gala, you should. Michigan has a new general manager. Sean Magee sent Savion Hiter the wrong dollar amount for his NIL?? The new GM is Dave Peloquin who used to work at Notre Dame. Michigan baseball got another ranked win over Louisville. The vibes for Michigan softball aren't good right now. They're like Nebraska football. 

MUSIC:

• "UFOs"—Phoenix and Alan Braxe
• "Evil Twin"—Cut Worms
• "Dug"—Dream Sitch, Michael Nau, Floating Action
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Seth on early: Ohio State has yet another former player admitting he didn't go to class. Mick Cronin doesn't record practices—he's Tom Izzo without being a good basketball coach. Seth gives a history of coaching styles, short version is the Bo/Woody/Izzo/Bear style of drill sergeant was just a post-WW2 thing that just worked in that era.
• Michigan tampered with [the locks that Mick Cronin puts on the dungeon] UCLA, and Xavier Booker sneaks in while it's open: ooh, more yelling!
• Purdue: Mackey was lit, 42-17 run after going down five early. Michigan took only one bad three; everything else was open. Purdue was the opposite, all movement. Not thruck.
• Matt Painter is the anti-Cronin. Explained the game so well: he helped every dive inside and forced M to hit open kickouts. Soon as they did there's nothing more to do
• If Mara is going to play like he did in the 1st half and Cadeau plays like he did in the 2nd half...yeesh.
• How would you attack Michigan? Start by pulling Mara out of the middle by going five-out, then survive their size on offense (e.g. Illinois).
• Duke Preview: Boozer is a suped up Yax, they have incredible length on the perimeter including a 6'8"/190 Italian they put on PGs so we're going to see if Michigan can keep up their scoring or turns it over a ton. Duke's weaknesses are you can get to the rim and get fouls on their young frontcourt, since they don't really have a backup five.
• Cason: best backup PG in the league? Not sure but turning a corner. Still misses a switch and doesn't have NBA spacial awareness, but he's a very valuable backup now.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Kitty" -- The Presidents of the United States of America
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Brian gets three minutes to talk about Mick Cronin, he hopes he never gets fired from UCLA. He's like a jolly caricature of Izzo. He's Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes. Michigan would be up by 10 in the first half and it would feel like they should be up 20. Tschetter's really improved as a defender but this game wasn't for him. UCLA was turning the ball over a ton, Michigan didn't have any until the end of the first half. This was a responsible game from Cadeau, some of his turnovers have been boneheaded. He's at around the same turnover rate as last year. LJ Cason is becoming a reliably effective playmaker. Mick Cronin might not have forgotten how to coach defense but he might've forgotten to scout Xavier Booker. If they play a bad game that means only winning by 10. 

Starts at 28:10

Similar situation in this game where Michigan played a dominant second half. The difference is they were down 16 points. Kenpom still had them at about 30% chance to win even down 16 in the second half! Michigan missed so many bunnies in this one. They started running NBA sets in their second half rally and that works because they have the size for it. The big story of this game was LJ Cason. Cadeau wasn't doing anything so Dusty put in Cason who stepped up. Who's the most random guy you've ever been thankful for in a game? Probably Kam Chatman. Michigan is rotating nine guys and the ninth guy was the MVP in this game. The six game stretch to finish the regular season features Michigan State as the second easiest game. Alex isn't scared of Purdue. Duke looms. 

Starts at 55:44

Takes hotter than the genius that came up with the two-man luge. Special guest, Seth daughter's Mira. Michigan takes 5 out of 6 points against Penn State, this was their first overtime that they didn't win this year. Michigan made it hard on themselves in the Friday game, Ivankovic sort of deflected a goal into their own net. These officials were fine because they degraded the game of hockey but they weren't as bad as some other guys! Penn State split their goalies but the better goalie gave Michigan a couple easy ones. Michigan has first round picks but the only one that has the sauce is Jayden Perron. You look at men's basketball and you think they could win a national championship. You look at hockey and you don't see it. Wisconsin has faded enough to not make the tournament but their forecheck also seemed like Michigan's kryptonite. If you want to win the conference you need six points against Wisconsin. You might need to win out. Michigan is still 96% to be a 1 seed. 

Starts at 1:38:22 Michigan replaces defensive tackle coach Lou Esposito with Larry Black out of Vanderbilt. He checks the recruiting boxes. He helped get Vanderbilt to respectable on defense which even Jesse Minter couldn't do. His resume is really good and still isn't as good a resume as the rest of the staff (complimentary). Women's basketball fell behind big to UCLA and got it to within one score. They're so close to the elite teams. Stickball! As of this recording baseball is 2-0 against good programs. USC and UCLA baseball hate being in the Big Ten. Softball is 7-2 overall, Alex was down after the Florida game. If you have six pitchers on the roster you have no pitchers. Brian has only watched curling. Olympic skiing discourse. Sweden pulled their goalie while up 5-2 to get the goal differential (did not get it). 

MUSIC:

• "Idol"—Mind Enterprises
• "YUHDONTSTOP"—De La Soul
• "Brand New City"—Snocaps
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed:

• Hoops vs Northwestern: Fell behind from a combination of dumbass play (Cadeau turnovers were brutal), missing bunnies, Northwestern shooting out of their minds.
• Why didn't Chris Collins stick with Arrinten Page? Third coaching staff that guy's played for that clearly hates him, played 26 minutes and was killing us (especially when he hit a three).
• Did the Nebraska thing to get Jayden Reid switched onto Mara, but they couldn't hit a shot in the 2nd half the way Nebraska could. Still not fixed? Or did they know Page and Martinelli are 15% shooters on contested threes and let them jack, eating bad luck in the beginning?
• LJ Cason game! Thought he had some howler possessions early but got his game in order and when he calmed down we got the best game of his young career. Trading threes with Martinelli was the turning point.
• Trey McKenney: Becoming a star. He's Nimari plus: great defensive anticipation, ice in his veins at the moment.
• Officials allowed numerous hook and holds, only called one because Dusty challenged it, and then they undid it by giving Mara a flagrant. Fourth time this season that they've gotten Verne Harris (PSU, Nebraska, Washington), and fourth time we've had to say the uneven officiating was a major reason Michigan struggled.
• Gayle: Underappreciated moment: turnover when he had the ball down low vs Reid, then they recreated it to get him a dunk.
• UCLA: Cronin built the softest team and then screams at them like they're most pugilistic sonsabitches in the conference. You recruited them man! Worry us because they're going to try to play five out—their three point shooting is a random number generator. Michigan has to crush them at the rim and convert if he brings help to Mara—not a Gayle game.
• WBB: Speaking of UCLA, Michigan was some made bunnies away. Third time this year they've had an opportunity to knock off a national title contender at home with their last possession. UCLA then obliterated MSU. Michigan is going to be a favorite next year, but they need to convert the easy things (free throws and shots at the rim) to take that step.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "The Kids Are Alright" -- Barns Courtney
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Usually there's a segment for each basketball but that would just be silly. Michigan annihilates a short-handed Penn State team featuring two thunderous Mark Davis Kiwi dunks and a season high from Nimari Burnett. Is there anything else to say about this game? Michigan only had eight turnovers against Ohio State. Oddly they missed a lot of bunnies. Michigan is rounding into the elite offensive and defensive rebounding team we were hoping they would be. Nice to see Yaxel get to the rim, he doesn't do it enough. Another nice game from Trey McKenney. The balance of this team is insane. We're looking forward to what Mick Cronin says after Aday Mara stuffs him in a locker. A few more easy games before a brutal close to the season. Michigan State did Michigan a solid by beating Illinois. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 25:16

Game one was one of the best college hockey games we’ve ever seen. Old Yost was dark and full of discontented engineers who just learned to swear. It was absolute hell for opponents and it’s just not that anymore in most games. Friday night felt like Old Yost. Michigan played great when they had their backs against the wall but you can’t just rally from down 4-0. Michigan could be the second best team in the country and still just not be as good as State. Michigan’s 4th string goalie looks just like Ivankovic and confused Dave in the press box. Why was Ivankovic suddenly ready on Saturday? Yost got HOT in the third period on Friday because of the missed calls. Michigan can still absolutely win a regular season title. Biggest concern in the NCAA tournament is also Michigan State, but the college hockey playoffs are weird. Has the modern era of college football reached hockey? 

Starts at 53:24

Takes hotter than Brian's face watching Seth come up with something that's hot. Usually we would do this on signing day but now nobody can remember when that is. Salesi Moa signed and enrolled at Utah and still ended up at Michigan. Brady Smigiel is one of your QBs but he's coming in injured, which probably effected his recruiting stock. He's a classic pocket guy, but Whittingham likes mobile QBs. QB Tommy Carr has Tate Forcier comparisons. Savion Hiter comes in as the most talented running back in this class, as well as the last few classes. What do you think Fred Jackson would call him? Jonathan Brown comes in as a generic three star RB but there's not much being said compared to Hiter. We'll count Salesi Moa in this class, he could play receiver and safety. He might actually be able to contribute in year one. WR Travis Johnson is just outside the top 100 but was very adamant about sticking to Michigan even after everything went down. WR Jaylen Pile also didn't waver but so far seems like just a guy, but with more scholarships available sure, bring him in. TE Mason Bonner comes in from Denver, might take a little time to develop. Should be athletic enough down the road. OT Malakai Lee comes in from Honolulu and might be the most excited about the coaching change. Comparisons to Mike Onwenu. Marky Walbridge is a late riser and offensive lineman late risers are often encouraging. Adrian Hamilton projects to center and centers don't rank highly usually. Tommy Fraumann is big enough to not care about rankings, born right after the 2008 Michigan Utah in which Kyle Whittingham beat Michigan. 

Starts at 1:45:41 Carter Meadows is a five star defensive end we're all excited about. He's not allowed to enroll early so he'll probably be a year two star. DE McHale Blade is one of the coolest names in this cycle. He has all the athletic traits, could be the sleeper of the defensive side. DE Tariq Boney is your Josh Uche, just let him go after the QB. Alister Vallejo looks like Mason Graham on the field and the kid from the Sandlot in his profile. DT Titan Davis is a Kris Jenkins guy, could be an anchor DE but will more likely fill in DT needs. Linebacker is where the excitement falls off. Nobody is anywhere near four star status. CB Jamarion Vincent is a developmental guy, expect him in year three. He was previously playing QB. CB Ernest Nunley is a former Cal commit and will probably be a safety. S Jordan Deck could me a sleeper, boring safety. Overall not a big fan of the back seven but it is the transfer portal era. It could be okay but it's sketchy.  

MUSIC:

• "Bazooka"—Miami XO
• "Baby Steps"—Olivia Dean
• "Phish Pepsi"—Wednesday
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed:

• Men's & Women's Basketball win at Breslin: 40 basketball wins.
• Jeremy Fears's instant karma for his dirty play. Impossible not to see all the extra stuff that guy does when you rewatch the games: yankbacks, pulldowns, more trips. Ira counted 80 yards in penalties and a targeting.
• MSU game: Brilliant defensive first half, all MSU could do consistently was get to the free throw line. Calling out their dirty play goes right to their heart because it's the best thing they can do.
• Going 2-3 zone out of halftime made good tactical sense but ball betrayed them a bit, good resilience to fight back.
• More tactics: Michigan was getting it down to Mara but he's not big enough on the block to make that.
• McKenney love: He's played his way to Michigan's best two—Burnett and Gayle are losing minutes to him. Anticipates screens, is big, and his midrange pullups are a good floor for possessions that help you against an elite defense. Really important for what this team needs to be going forward.
• Who's M's best draft pick? We'd take Morez.
• Who's the best five? Depends on opponent and context. Might not play Mara vs a 5-out team, can go three bigs against an MSU-like opponent.
• Who's the best team in the Big Ten? Illinois. They go to Breslin and host Michigan but the rest of their schedule are the mids Michigan already played, they got the best player in the league from the composite 250s in Wagler—worst scouting miss in history? Hope Underwood calls out MSU's assist lies so Wagler gets his laurels for his real assists.
• Michigan next year? Might only have to replace Yaxel (McKenney and Cason take Gayle and Burnett minutes), can go to the portal for a difference-maker and run it back.
• Penn State preview: They have Mingo back but Yuric played out of his mind last time and think he's not coming back from a 103-degree fever on Saturday to play like that again. Have a bunch of questionable guys tonight. Think University Park atmosphere is similar to Saline 7th Grade Middle School game. WEAR PINK (I can't; I don't have any).
• What's the reverse Dusty May for Izzo? Sing he's a jolly good fellow, or bring out the newspapers.
• Hockey: MSU series could be for the conference since Wisconsin is wilting and Penn State just lost McKenna to a bar fight. Michigan needs to get more than a split because MSU has Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Ohio State left, and Michigan still has to play the other contenders.
• Put me down for this: Mick Cronin is going to complain about Michigan buying players when he comes to Ann Arbor. Craig says he'll dog his own players.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Knights" -- Minus the Bear
• "Nothing More" -- Guards
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Where's Tre Holloman at?? Michigan's first victory at Breslin since 2018. They managed to blow all of their 16 point halftime lead but only briefly. This year didn't have the same "helplessness" vibe of previous years. The grifting from Jeremy Fears was incredible. Michigan State's offense ended up being generating bogus calls and then hitting free throws. Their roster doesn't have the best athletes in the world but they have guys that have stuck around for a while. Trey McKenney is becoming a much bigger piece of this team, if Michigan goes on a tournament run it could be because he steps up as a major contributor. Is he the 6th man? They're running a lot of offense through Mara, maybe that should be going through Morez Johnson instead. Michigan is back to #1 in Kenpom and is projected to win the Big Ten outright but the end of the schedule is very tough. 

Starts at 29:17

The vibes here were considerably worse! Nebraska was getting an alarming amount of open looks. Michigan wins by shooting what felt like 70% from two. Some of Cadeau's turnovers were just inexplicable. We can't pronounce Berke's name so he's just Berke Boyband. The studies say that every conspiracy theory you have about officiating is true. Pass blocking is not actually allowed in basketball. Nebraska is legit, this was a tough game that Cadeau almost gave away. Shout out to Fred Hoiberg for coming in with a great gameplan for confusing Michigan. The overturn on the challenge made no sense, how was that possibly clear? Should Michigan be going inside more when the threes aren't dropping? Michigan was missing open threes. They beat a top 10 Kenpom team while shooting 23% from three, that's impressive no matter what. Was LJ Cason unplayable? 

Starts at 52:18

Takes hotter than Yaxel Lendeborg at the free throw line. Michigan gets five of six points over Ohio State in a frustrating manner. Stephen Peck played a great game on Saturday until the last five minutes. They're missing points here and there against teams that they're better than. Wisconsin somehow went from #1 to might miss the tournament. Michigan State is only one point behind in the Big Ten rankings. 

Starts at 1:14:40 We're born haters so it's time for a gimmicky top five sports villains. There are a surprising number of ways to define "villain" in this context. There's a lot of NHL discourse because you used to just get paid to hurt people. Which Big Ten commissioners make the list (spoiler: all of them). Not posting spoilers here but yes there is a certain Wisconsin basketball player. Who's on your list?  

MUSIC:

• "Moody"—Royel Otis
• "Silver Joy"—Damien Jurado
• "Sweet and Dandy"—Toots and the Maytals
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Nebraska: Nearly won that game shorthanded. Got great performances from replacements but ran their starters into the ground.
• Craig's analysis: Hoiberg decided to play some football. Steamroller screens and the like. Nebraska just made contested threes in the first half that they missed in the second half. Sam Hoiberg is straight up good: understands basketball, understands how to organize a team, understands how to get the ball to his guys. Second half Michigan did press the press the edges a little tighter.
• Kenpom tracks 2 point distance. We're thrilled. Seth: The most important stats in basketball are two-point defense and two-point offense, and the most important component of two point percentage is distance from the rim.
• Michigan wins these games because they get to the rim better than anybody and push you away from the rim better than anybody. Hoiberg knew he had to shoot to win, but also drew up some excellent sets to get free twos when he needed them.
• Shout-out to Nebraska's Max Bredeson kickout and form tackling.
• Hoiberg messed so well with Michigan's switches: They want to switch one to four, and they want to leave Mara available to put his hand in the way at the rim. Nebraska's response was to run these double screens—the Rip Hamilton way—to get cracks open for their shooters, but that contributed to their shooters getting tired in the 2nd half.
• Turnovers: some are baked in, unforced. This game additionally had ref show turnovers but they're going to take chances to get to the rim because that's what's so important to them.
• MSU preview: They're such a Big Ten team. They can get around M's two-point defense because they shoot assisted other twos and those are good enough shots opposite the #1 defense. They get after you (not the ball: they jump on your back) on the boards. Kohler has really turned himself into a shooter, might be an NBA player. Fears was terrible early in the season but now he's an excellent guard. Gets after it (and you) on defense, isn't a great shooter but can find pockets to pass into and draws a ton of fouls then makes his FTs. Coen Carr = Brent Petway!
• MSU is going to play dirty. Nobody in the country gets better calls at home, and they are going to use that strategically. Expect them to be mauling Mara to deny paint touches, expect Cooper to have his arm wrapped on Rez and pulling him down. All the gritty trick that define Izzo teams.
• What's with Yax? Think he's drawing more defensive attention and that's creating more for Morez Johnson. That's a credit to Dusty May: when he built this roster he built in answers for everything you want to do to them.
• Credit to Trey McKenney. He's become the 6th man, because he will come in and give you whatever you need right then. Defense? He's big and athletic. Need to hit some free throws (vs OSU, or the three at the Under-8 timeout?) he's got you. Missing your threes, he'll knock down a pair.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:51

Indiana Football won a natty.

We say again: Indiana Football won. A natty. The Ohio State fans are crying Signs, it's great! Putting this in context because there hasn't been a more surprising national champion in any sport? Maybe Leicester but IU had the worst W% historically of any champion. Arc of college football is the big schools consolidate their chances of winning—last time a new school entered the ring it was Florida, which represented a demographic shift. What does this mean? Not a secret sauce but IU built similarly to 2023 Michigan: a base of players who played together a long time and some elite pieces added. They get better ROI by ignoring HS recruiting, put a lot of time and money into scouting. Similarity to Dusty May in that Cig knows what he needs and scouts the hell out of the rest of the sport.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 27:20

Takes hotter than it's not outside. OSU game was annoyingly close. At one point Michigan was 2/16 from three and under 50% from the charity stripe. Biggest story of the game is the way Michigan held Bruce Thornton in check—the one hedge to center court that Mara got called for a foul was an awful call, but a proof of concept for how they defended OSU, which was to not give Thornton any space. Great Crisler crowd kept getting into highs and then a low-percentage event would derail, like their 17%-shooting big Christoph Tilly making a pair of threes (one a bank), 24%-shooting Amare Bynum making a deep contested jumper, and Mobley getting a bank three as shot clock is dying. Missed front ends made FT shooting feel extra annoying, somehow righted in the 2nd half. Big part of that was 21 good minutes from Trey McKenney. Liked Cason and McKenney more than Cadeau in this one: OSU has a 7'0" center and a 7'2" center but both of them are glued to the floor, which favors YOLO players. Annoying turnovers trying to figure out their zone.

Starts at 54:03

Less annoying game, as Indiana was without Tayton Conerway for all but two minutes, and nobody else has the ability to get to the rim. IU couldn't even get the ball inside the three-point line. They finished 11/34 (32%) from three and that was because they made twice as many as they should have. IU only got five ORebs as they abandoned the glass to stop Michigan's transition game but terrible Nick Dorn shots that went off the back iron were their best way of getting the ball in the paint. Final score doesn't reflect the game because once Michigan got up 20-5 they put it in cruise control—this time it wasn't LJ Cason on the one drive for a layup. Will Tschetter's defense on Tucker DeVries was also a major factor.

Nebrasketball is truly good. Very well-coached team, has a good system that turns everybody into Nebraska: 11th in taking threes, 6th in opponent 3PA/FGA. Have to slow down the game to protect stretch C Rienk Mask, who's the key to that offense. Might be without small four Braden Frager and been without SG Connor Essegian most of the year so there's a 23% shooting big in Berke "the Turk" Buyuktuncel that you can hide Mara on. The problem with that is it takes Mara out of the paint so you can't get away with playing as aggressively on the perimeter. Think we saw the prototype for how they want to play against Nebraska in that Oregon game. Might be able to do what Illinois did, was to take shots but then crash the glass because they don't have a lot of size.

Starts at 1:15:12 Time to get to know the best women's team in school history. Three losses were all similar: got way behind in the 1st quarter, fought their way back, came up short. Defense is fantastic, play the full court and cause a lot of turnovers which creates offensive opportunities. Get bogged down a bit in the half court and struggle to make their FTs. WBB officiating is beyond atrocious. Washington loss was a schedule thing after 2OT late game vs Oregon, but UConn and Vandy losses showed they can play with the elites and just need one more big basket from the super sophs.

Hockeybear is blogging the team and making Team Sheets (key).

It's not so easy is it?

Super sophs: Holloway runs the offense and sets the defensive tone, Olson is a bucket, Swordsy is hero, and then they're getting a year from a growing Delfosse and UCLA transfer Dudley. Mostly a seven-woman rotation with Sofilkanich giving them some size inside, BQD a nightmare of a defensive pest, and then growth from Crockett who gives them some more size when they need it.

Can they compete with the ELITE-elites? Nobody's unbeatable this year; Michigan is a solid two-seed, feel like floor is Sweet 16, has the make of a team that ends up losing a Final Four game en route to a big run next year.  

MUSIC:

• "Getting Killed"—Geese
• "Forever Never Ends"—Jeff Tweedy
• "Downhill"—The Delivery Boys feat. Goldwood, Max Gertler & LOSTBOYBK
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

• IU national champions: Most unlikely championships in the history of sports. Credit Cignetti and top to bottom program management.
• How did they do it? Talent evaluation is elite. Built like 2023 Michigan: develop a lot of your own guys and then surgically found guys in the portal.
• Seth: Lesson for the rest of CFB is ROI: IU wasn't paying that much for their JMU guys, wasn't spending to have 5-stars learning to play on the three-deep. Focus shifting from Ty Haywoods (super talented, needs 3 years) to Blake Frazier (ready now) because there's no guarantee you'll get any return. Need to build your scouting department to watch all of CFB and know what you need.
• Sam: Can Michigan recreate the JMU Dudes with some of the Utah guys they got?
• Not a coincidence the Big Ten is winning championships and SEC isn't even in the game. Two reasons the SEC was dominant: they had a culture of paying players under the table and they had Nick Saban.
• Being able to develop guys (without them leaving or costing too much) will be the golden egg in the future.
• How sustainable? Maybe? Bringing in a veteran QB every year, DC might get Jesse Minter'd to a better job. Should remain a good team, very hard to repeat.
• Hoops: Shooting better? Maybe, but 3s are random and they're probably capped around okay in that department because they have guys like Gayle, Cason and Yax. IU lost their main guy who could get to the bucket and M could lock them down. Excellent defensive performance disguised by Kenpom. IU shut down M's transition game by abandoning the boards. Interesting decision by IU because those were M weaknesses.
• Yax okay? Think he plays off Rez—the scouting report is focus on Yaxel so that's opened up things for Johnson, since no team has enough big wings to last against both of them.
• Ohio State preview: OSU is an effort game—Thornton can shoot and they make a lot of floaters. CANNOT let them cut and get to the rim. They don't play defense so you have to put up 100 on them.
• Nebraska: Nebraska might be without their freshman winger Braden Frager, that makes them a five-out team. Can you play Mara against them?
• Break: Tatum to RB? Probably a Whittingham "gonna try that" thing. He's had success with that, but it's a bit late and there's no scouting on it. Like what it says about Tatum as a team player. Don't think he can play both AND baseball. That's a lot, and safety is the moon to him.
• Hockey: Michigan is #1 in Big Ten points percentage but they've got the hardest schedule of any team in hockey left to go. Let off the gas for 10 minutes of 120 against Minnesota and were unlucky not to get more goals. Have to protect Peck—this team can play defense like that, going to have to maintain that focus. Can't lose points against the OSUs and Minnesotas because the games vs MSU/Wisconsin will determine the league. Can you get Ivankovic back? Maybe? Haven't heard anything positive except they haven't ruled it out.
• Trey Burke: Top three player in M history? Yeah. Block was clean, and so was the team.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Buffalo Song" -- Chris Fayz
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

The portal is closed! The only windows remaining are for a coaching change and for Indiana/Miami after the national championship game. Transfers, NIL, and contracts have been weird this cycle. Will Diego Pavia be in college until he's 45?? Thank you Davis Warren for beating Ohio State in the Funniest Game Ever. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is your backup QB out of Colorado State where he threw for over 7,000 yards. That's a "we don't practice f*cked" pick-up. Jadyn Davis's recruiting profile was a huge miss. Georgia Tech is a cool place for Justice Haynes, we're still not sure if Kuzdzal is returning. Taylor Tatum comes in from Oklahoma after a case of fumble-itus and several other ailments. Now he might actually have a good running backs coach. They retained Andrew Marsh - massive. The wide receiver room looks great, the only thing missing is a dedicated slot receiver but Michigan hasn't really utilized the role in a while anyways. Marlin Klein declared for the NFL draft but is he going to get drafted? The remaining tight ends and fullbacks should be good and viable options, they didn't get anyone out of the portal. JJ Buchanon doesn't count since he's being listed as a wide receiver. The offensive line is mostly retained which has star power potential. Overall the offensive line held serve besides losing Haywood, overall an A-grade. Would you give the offensive portal recruiting/retention an A all across the board? Could this become a... top ten offense? 

Starts at 41:41

Defensively is more of a mixed bag. Defensive end lost a lot of guys to graduation but only Devon Baxter to the portal. John Henry Daley is questionable based on his health, but if he's healthy you get Derrick Moore (but who actually plays more). Defensive tackle doesn't lose anyone noteworthy to the portal. You get back Trey Pierce and Enow Etta. Jonah Leaea was like a young Mo Hurst, he needs another 20 pounds. Defensive tackle has depth, just not star power, this wasn't a spectacular portal season for them either. This gets a solid B. Linebacker is the trouble spot. They lose Ernest Hausmann to eligibility/spirit quest, Cole Sullivan to Oklahoma, and Jimmy Rolder to the draft. The guys they bring in are uhhhhhh. Aisea Moa knows Jay Hill's system so he could possibly play but doesn't seem like he'll be all-Big Ten. This is a D, it's close to an F. At cornerback, you get Jyaire Hill, Zeke Berry, and Snowden. Jayden Sanders to Notre Dame stings. Let's.... talk about the allegations of sabotage and blackmail? Cornerbacks situation gets a... C+. Safety loses Brandyn Hillam and Elijah Dotson. Is Bryce Underwood the only guy to come from Belleville and last for over a year? Is Rod Moore going to play? Who knows. Chris Bracy comes in from Memphis, who comes in with a historic tale of a fabled fumble. Safety starters could be Bracy and Rod Moore, Mason Curtis to linebacker. You have six safeties? How many are going to play in a Cover-1? Defense overall gets a C, they probably didn't get better or worse. How much of the Wink disdain will have been warranted? If Daley doesn't get healthy who is going to be the star on this defense? Maybe they'll be like the offense last year - lots of potential but not quite there yet. 

Starts at 1:23:58

Takes hotter than Utah's athletic director on Twitter. Michigan basketball sweeps their west coast tour, they don't dominate but give a solid beating in both games to not-great teams. Michigan and Oregon were close to identical at the rim. You're starting to see the cracks in the armor of this team. Sean Stewart is an elite flopper. What did Dusty possibly say to warrant a technical? Elliot Cadeau was pretty efficient but gets too close to the face of guys on the perimeter and then gets beaten. He tries things that are just a little too ambitious too often, these things usually don't work. Indiana doesn't match up with Michigan at all, Trey Burke to get honored at the Ohio State game. It's about to get real for Nebraska. 

Starts at 1:54:54 Michigan gets an almost-sweep of Minnesota getting 5 of 6 points. It's hard to believe this is what Minnesota's hockey team looks like, they've fallen a long way. Minnesota didn't go into the portal or the CHL and just doesn't have the same talent as they used to. Even the announcers were saying "oh, don't do that!" Seven saves in one minute is pretty incredible. Michigan State is still the one team that can match up with Michigan. Michigan is probably in the best spot since the 2022 team when they were number 1. Is there anything Warde Manuel has done that makes you think Michigan hockey will be on a local television station? Four Big Ten teams are in the top 10 of NPI.  MUSIC:

• "Secret Loving"— Dry Cleaning
• "Dancing In The Club"— This Is Lorelei & MJ Lederman
• "Random Rules"— Silver Jew
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Portal: You can't make an OL in the portal—keeping Guarnera and Sprague was huge. Wide receiver room is night and day from before. They put a secondary back together. Concern over LB and don't have an impact DT.
• Seth: After all that everyone is back where they were. Lucky for Michigan that everyone's a free agent but this is a terrible way to run the sport.
• Why does everybody forget Chase Taylor? You're going to learn his name this year.
• DT: Sam says PalePale was getting talked up during bowl prep. Put Crippen down a few times. Question is conditioning.
• Hoops vs Wisconsin: What happened? They got five-outed, pulled Mara out of the paint which was a key to how they were playing two-point defense, which is mostly drop. Played a lot more hedge vs Washington.
• Discussion on 3-point randomness. NBA studies prove the efficacy of closeouts. It's not totally random; what really matters is preventing open shots. No correlation between first half and back half three-point defense.
• Seth: Washington can't get to the rim and Wisconsin has guys who can take advantage of that. These European shootin' bigs are going to be a problem. Michigan is like Florida last year: they're big and they play fast. Slow them down and pull them outside and win a luck game. Response is to hedge more.
• Brian: We sometimes see Michigan playing live ball tactics that don't make sense against the team they're playing; the hedging was practicing for Illinois and Nebraska.
• Rebounding (especially vs PSU): Needs work. Big Ten doesn't officiate shoves in the back or the Wisconsin step-under, so you have to really focus on practicing rebounding in this league to be any good at it, and it's not the focus of this team.
• Hockey: Was it a cheap shot? If Notre Dame wasn't a goon squad we'd say no, but they've seen this guy run a goalie and Notre Dame is notorious for causing injuries—they knocked out M's best defender earlier in the year.
• Same referee was there for McGroarty's injury, Hallum's injury, and no calls on either of those either.
• Big Ten does not care about hockey, the officiating is atrocious. They don't know the game, and they're getting players hurt because of it. Can't self-regulate because there's no fighting so you need officials to do it, and they don't care.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "I Wanna Get Better" -- Bleachers
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

Never doubt the law of conservation of vibes. The Penn State basketball game saved the offensive line. This was recorded on Sunday at noon so by the time you listen to this, things have probably already changed (hello, Jaime Ffrench). It would be nice to get a backup QB in the portal (hello Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi). Justice Haynes has hit the portal, might be going to Georgia Tech, and Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum is in. So far he's struggled with fumbles and a hamstring injury but Oklahoma's RB coach is one of the worst in P4. He might be a Moneyball situation. Kuzdzal might be coming back? Jaime F-f-f-french is in and if JJ Buchanan joins then we have an actual wide receiver room. Still need a tight end? Offensive line got their guys back, we're un-mad now. Need some depth at center, though. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 27:11

Not as sunny as the offense right now but it can change at any time. How we feel so far depends on the status of John Henry Daley's Achilles, he could be a Derrick Moore comparison if healthy. Defensive end looks pretty set. Defensive tackle... they get Pierce back. They do get Jonah Lea'ea from Utah who was a bit undersized and needed another year to develop. Enow Etta's return has turned from optimism to pessimism. Hopefully Alister Vallejo is ready as a freshman. At linebacker Rasheem Biles is off the board, they are hosting Cade Uluave from Cal, an all-ACC linebacker. Jimmy Rolder has declared for the draft and is #692 on the NFL Mock Draft database. The secondary isn't entirely in the portal but it's alarming, safety is now a concern. Surely we'll find out more about safety this week because you can't go into a season with three safeties. Per Trevor McCue, Jay Hill doesn't rotate the secondary at all! Kerry Coombs got his guys for special teams, they've got a kicker from Pitt, Trey Butkowski. This offense could be really good and not need to rely on a kicker who can hit field goals from the 37. Overall, get in a safety or two and ideally a good defensive tackle and this team is really close to being very competitive. When's the last time the offense was better than the defense, 2011? 

Starts at 1:05:25

Takes hotter than Wisconsin three point shooting. Basketball is no longer invincible. This must feel the same as when Matt Painter had to play Mo Wagner. Michigan got out-rebounded pretty badly which feels like a major failing given the line-up. They need to play a little dirtier in the paint. Michigan and Wisconsin were shooting back-to-back threes until Michigan fell off. The offensive goal-tending ruling was the rule. Wisconsin doesn't send many guys to the offensive board, they tend to get back and trying to get transition baskets isn't worth it. A key for Michigan going forward is how stretch is everyone's five? Wisconsin shot 12 points higher than their expected for the number of threes they shot. 

Starts at 1:28:57 Michigan escapes a bad Notre Dame team but loses goalie Jack Ivankovic for "some period of time" (possibly the season). The hit was unfortunate but probably not malicious. There are strong words said about these officials. Naurato has said in his press conferences that "I can't say what I want to say." Big Ten hockey is one of the best leagues in the world and the Big Ten treats it like the 4th most important sport. Freshman goalie Stephen Peck is now your starter. The defense needs to step way up to support their new goalie. If the season ended today they'd still be the number one seed in the tournament, though. Part of that is because of Ivankovic.  MUSIC:

• "One Tiny Flower"— Jeff Tweedy
• "Don't Do Me Like That"— J. Mascis
• "Falling Behind"— Laufey
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Most excited about the hire: there are adults in the room. Spent 20+ coaching in one place with no scandals.
• Impressed that they stabilized the program so quickly.
• Portal recruiting happens in December; they're playing from behind because IU was setting up all of these visits weeks ago. Notice they're getting special teams guys because Coombs was already in his job.
• Whittingham as Crisler (Brian: [moans]), as an established outsider who locked down Harmon to survive the transition. That was the end of the Yost Cycle, and likewise this is the end of the Bo Cycle. What happens next? How does he develop ways to take advantage of Michigan's place in the new world.
• Money allocation is a big conversation going forward. Indiana puts all of its resources into the portal, Michigan will pay a NOB and also pay a Rolder.
• New offense: Not a whole lot different under Harbaugh? Utah fans: "get ready to run QB Power!"...okay! "Tell your TEs to prepare to be blockers." Sure. "Don't expect any
• Seth: More Urban Meyer approach where it's about efficiency more than explosives. Loaded at OL, have great RBs.
• Main feature of Beck is he plays a "tight end" who's really a receiver. Brian points out JJ Buchanan is 6'3"/225 and only played five snaps inline—that's just a wide receiver. Point is they're way more spread than people realize.
• In Break: Ryan Mallett (RIP). Craig says Lloyd tried to broker a conference with Mallett's dad and Rich Rod, neither side was interested.
• Jay Hill: Has the bona fides, knows where the hashes are, made Weber State a power.
• Schematically, going back to more of a Cover-1 look. Notre Dame defense is similar, also a lot like the Ryan Walters stuff where they turn their 4-2 into a 5-1 regularly. Really wanted to keep Cole Sullivan (as a WLB who can DE or S) and Jordan Young (as a nickel who can S or CB) for this system. Think Jyaire or Shamari would be good in that nickel role.
• Biggest hurdle for this staff? Probably learning how to recruit as Michigan instead of Utah.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

Basketball gets to go first because they've earned it. They're the number one team on Kenpom by a full five points and the second highest rated Kenpom team of all time. Michigan shot 20% from three and still beat a top 25 USC team by 30 points. This was the Morez Johnson game. Michigan has three of the top five players in the Big Ten. What does a Michigan loss look like? Dusty May has done a great job working on Roddy Gayle, auto-benching with this team is fine. The cutoff for Kenpom to think you're a rotational player is 10% of team minutes, Grady and Goodman are both above this metric. The things that Michigan are good at are things that are very repeatable. There are different levels of Kenpom Time every time Michigan plays. It's weird to say this but it's good that Michigan gets Nebraska at home, they're spicy. 

Starts at 24:34

The Citrus Bowl came and went. We were hoping we could learn things about this offensive line going into the off-season then a lot of them went and hit the portal. Kuzdzal played an encouraging game but there were still a few moments of "I wish Jordan Marshall had hit that hole." Bryce Underwood did get some explosive runs, this will be nice for a new coaching staff that likes to run the quarterback. He was put in a lot of positions to fail towards the end of the game. Kerry Coombs did some things with special teams! Wow Michigan drew holds finally. We are done with the Wink Martindale era. Michigan had zero pass rush. 

Starts at 40:11

Takes hotter than the basketball team, this will be the intro until any reason otherwise.  Offensive Coordinator - Jason Beck Came in from Utah, was at New Mexico before that. Has had some very successful offenses. Was a spread-heavy coach at New Mexico and became Whittingham-ized at Utah. Seems like a seamless fit, he should know what to do with Bryce Underwood. Running Backs Coach - Tony Alford It's working, good work keeping him around. Wide Receivers Coach(es) - Micah Simon and Marques Hagans Micah Simon doesn't have a lot of experience, he followed Beck. How much coaching does it take to get someone to catch the ball?  Tight Ends Coach - Freddie Whittingham He's developed some studs. Kyle Whittingham's brother, does not feel like a nepotism hire. Offensive Line Coach - Jim Harding Has two first round tackles this year. Probably could not have gotten a better o-line coach. Michigan has players trickling into the portal but you've got The Guy coaching next year's group. A lot of offensive linemen got recruited by Sherrone so it's not a shocker that some players are looking elsewhere.  Defensive Coordinator - Jay Hill Turned Weber State into a powerhouse. He has coordinator and head coaching experience, seems good. He has coached college his whole career rather than coordinate NFL defenses. Defensive Ends - Lewis Powell Specializes in Polynesians. Has a spectacular track record of developing defensive ends. Brian pledges to figure out how to pronounce all the Polynesian names.  Defensive Tackles - Lou Esposito Continued from last year. You can get more assistant coaches now so it makes sense to split DEs and DTs.  Linebackers Coach - Alex Whittingham Kyle's son, spent eight years with the Chiefs. Apparently Andy Reid played with Kyle Whittingham. This one is a bit more of a nepo hire but he has moved up the ranks.  Defensive Backs Coach - Jernaro Gilford BYU fans are upset that he's leaving which is a good sign. There aren't a lot of cornerbacks in the portal, hopefully he can find some guys.  Special Teams - Kerry Coombs Gets to keep the job he got right before Sherrone was fired. His previous Special Teams have been in the 30ish rank. He's not a slam dunk but should be solid. 

Starts at 1:42:43 It's Portal Takes season, we have not yet gotten to Portal Gives season. Guys who are in the portal are not necessarily gone. Jadyn Davis, Davis Warren, Ben Roebuck, Connor Jones, Devon Baxter, Semaj Morgan, Jaden Mangham, and Jasper Parker are guys who will probably get better opportunities elsewhere. Elijah Dotson, Brady Prieskorn, and Kaden Strayhorn are guys you'd like to keep around. Zeke Berry, Jake Guarnera, Andrew Sprague, Cole Sullivan, and Enow Etta are the "ouch" group. Some guys have left the door open. Would really really like to get Guarnera back, Sprague sounds like he's going to Texas. Most folks who are going to enter the portal have but we're not out of it yet. Keep an eye on Utah defensive end John Henry Daley, cornerback Smith Snowden, and safety Tao Johnson. Cole Sullivan would be a great fit in this defense, would love to keep him. They need guys (plural) on the defensive line, especially at defensive tackle. Even if you keep Andrew Marsh you would like to get a wide receiver or two. Might want to look into a punter or a kicker, maybe with a new staff we can finally move on from the 2015 Michigan State game.  MUSIC:

• "Nothing I Need"— Lord Huron
• "A Couple Minutes"— Olivia Dean
• "Cotton Mouth"— fanclubwallet
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

Brian can't make fun of the name "Kyle" anymore. Woah, Alex Drain is here! Did Kyle Whittingham get pushed out of Utah? He's 66 but could probably beat up several members of the current team, he doesn't feel too old. This might be the best guy to hit the ground running with Bryce Underwood. He's had a 20+ year stretch of success and it's mostly over-performing expectations statistically. Are there concerns about the way this would translate to Michigan? Utah folks are asking if we're prepared for limited media availability, a coach who can sound like a jerk, and a 300 lbs fullback. Yes, yes we are. Kyle Whittingham's risk for scandal seems extremely low. How many coaches in the Big Ten would you pick over him? His dad's nickname was "Mad Dog". A brief history of his success over his coaching career, which included two PAC-12 Championships. Kyle lets his QB run the ball, Bryce's output this season would've been the worst for Utah going back at least a decade. Harbaugh had a great hit rate on sleeper recruits, Whittingham should as well. He has some very Harbaugh-adjacent quotes as well. What's your letter grade for the hire?

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 42:48

The new staff is coming together pretty quickly. Jason Beck is lining up to be the offensive coordinator, coming in from Utah. Alex details his history as a coach which was mostly as an offensive coordinator and QB coach. He likes hybrid players and will love the tight end room. Jay Hill is lined up from BYU as defensive coordinator, BYU fans are not thrilled that he's leaving. He took a 100ish ranked defense and turned it into a top 25 defense. He also made Weber State a powerhouse while he was there. He'll play more man-defense than we're used to which might not be what we want against Ohio State. Jay Hill could also be a head coach in waiting down the road. It feels like the defense is going to be coached again. Jason Beck could be a QB coach but there are rumors that Koy Detmer Jr could come in as an analyst/QB coach. All signs point to Tony Alford being retained. Ron Bellamy will probably stick around, they still need a Michigan guy and he might be the most "Michigan Guy" on staff. Freddie Whittingham could likely come in at tight ends coach, he is not a nepotism hire. He could also be a recruiting coordinator guy if you want to keep Grant Newsome around. Jim Harding could be the offensive line coach coming out of Utah. Lewis Powell might be coming in as defensive ends coach out of Utah. Lou Esposito might stay at Michigan. Linebackers coach is the one area where we haven't heard anything. Whittingham has mentioned going after a coach that is still in the playoffs. Jernaro Gilford might follow Jay Hill as the defensive backs coach. LaMar Morgan is a good recruiter so maybe you keep him. What about Special Teams coach? Time to move on from Kerry Coombs already? How would you grade these potential hires? 

Starts at 1:38:48

Takes hotter than the Utah message boards. It was a wild ride getting from DeBoer, Fisch, or Dillingham to here. A lot of information was coming from agents getting names out there. A lot of people said "Biff Poggi could get the job" and it was never going to happen. Did Michigan really never go and try to offer Dillingham a job? It feels like his people really hyped him up. We might be having a very different conversation if that Oklahoma receiver would've just caught that ball. Everyone penciled in Dillingham after the Oklahoma Alabama game and then he signs an extension. Whittingham was unemployed, he probably didn't have agents hyping him up. Brian still likes Jeff Brohm. Interestingly Penn State never went after Whittingham but once the Michigan job opened up he said he was "in the transfer portal." Why was Biff Poggi on that podcast? He was shooting his shot for a job but it was never going to happen. How well did the "insiders" do and how clued in will they be on the new staff. 

Starts at 2:18:38 Oh yeah Michigan has a bowl game. The only opt-outs are El-Hadi, Derrick Moore, and Barham (and Ernest Hausmann). Maybe it's a good sign that a lot of players still want to play in this? Six of 11 defensive starters are sitting out for Texas, most of their offense is playing. Michigan's best hope is to watch Arch Manning turf five-yard outs. I guess we'll see Wink walk off the field as a Michigan coach for the last time. This feels like a zombie team right now. Does Michigan have a way to stop Ryan Wingo? The Ohio State game feels like four years ago. Are you excited for this game? A lot of big-name guys have at least remained in the recruiting class. The hope of the Sherrone era was "hopefully he just gets better at coaching" and it's a relief to just move on. What was the most enjoyable game of the Sherrone era? Not the highlight, but the most fun beginning-to-end? A lot of things about the last two to three years make a lot more sense now. A lot of paranoia and worry feels lifted, there are adults in charge.  MUSIC:

• "Medium Machine"—Sports Team
• "Inept Apollo"—Nation of Language
• "Where'd You Go"—Horsegirl
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Women's hoops talk: This is the best team in Michigan history. They're tiny up front but they've got a lot of length on the perimeter and are generating a ton of steals. Hung with the best UConn team in a minute for 3 quarters.
• Reading the DeBoer comments: When someone's at a terminal job he gets to hog both lanes. Our read on it is DeBoer is making the comments you make if you're going to consider Michigan AFTER the Playoff.
• Timeline is our enemy: if Bama beats Oklahoma Michigan will probably move on to Dillingham and Dillingham will say yes.
• Dillingham: Meteoric riser, great motivator, Bryce seems to like, Sam thinks his offense is explosive. Concerns are young guys have yet to make their big mistakes. A little weird, but so was Harbaugh. Very ASU with a very Arizona staff.
• Brohm: Seems like a solid coach, won wherever he's gone but hasn't had that 11-win season; think people are wary that his DC is Ron English (probably can't come here after the EMU stuff) and Vince Marrow, who's said some things about Michigan. Brian: So did Jim Harbaugh. Seth: But Harbaugh was right. Brian: Marrow said Harbaugh was going to the NFL, so he was right too. Think concerns are overblown.
• Craig makes the case for Scot Loeffler: Michigan guy from Ohio who'd leave the Eagles in a second.
• Adam Stenavich: Isn't the playcaller, has never been a HC or a college coordinator.
• Eli Drinkwitz: Not a fan. Schedule winner (they only play 8 games in the SEC and he got an easy one). Personally find him off-putting, not a cultural fit. Gone out of his way to make uneducated comments about Michigan's 2023 season: hard pass.
• Clark Lea: Intriguing. Offense is 100% Pavia, worried about building an OL, but Seth finds his defense fascinating, seems to be good at putting together a roster. Don't know his buyout because you can't FOIA a private school.
• Seth: Roster construction is going to be critical in this age. Can you recruit your needs in the portal, build an OL at home, and keep your team together? Whoever they hire the GM is going to be the next most important position. Find the best.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

Sometimes in December we don't have enough content for a podcast... this week there is enough for a podcast. Michigan football has been thrown into chaos following the Sherrone Moore firing. This is the third out of five Warde Manuel hires in the three most important sports to have left in disgrace (also Jim Harbaugh depending on who you ask). There have been too many red flags on too many hires. There is no oversight within the athletic department and then you have to do an investigation instead of preventing one. The only reason the WiFi is better at Michigan Stadium is because of the Zach Bryan concert, not because they cared about the fan experience. Fans are just a piggy bank. Michigan is way too much in the news right now. If "a lot of people knew about this" then why didn't someone say something sooner? Warde lost credibility after his handling of Mel Pearson and he doesn't get credit for Brandon Naurato. Grandmas in Peoria know too much about the Michigan athletic department. 

Starts at 27:41

Michigan needs a new head football coach. How good do we feel going into it? Probably about a B-. There's not an obvious slam dunk candidate. The three big names are Kalen DeBoer, Kenny Dillingham, and Jedd Fisch. If Alabama wins their first playoff game then DeBoer is almost entirely off the table, if they lose to Oklahoma then there's enough smoke to believe he might think about it. Would DeBoer really leave Alabama though? It's not a place that coaches leave and he's a long shot even if they lose to Oklahoma. Kenny Dillingham played for Arizona State and has a lot of family and connections in Phoenix, he might just be a long shot to convince to move from home. Kenny Dillingham is young, he watches Stranger Things and doesn't understand all the references. What about Jeff Brohm? Jedd Fisch is good at roster construction and handling QBs, something that would be nice for Michigan right now. Jake Butt had a strong endorsement for Jedd. Some coaches wouldn't have former players stomping for them. Jason Eck is a fun name but he's never proven himself at a major program. Based on everything so far, it feels like it's probably Jedd Fisch (PENDING A BACKGROUND CHECK). Which assistant coaches/coordinators would you keep? 

Starts at 54:31

Takes hotter than... actually we need takes about half of where they could go. We need to dial it back this week. Thankfully we can now turn our attention to basketball! Michigan 101, Maryland 83, a strange game. David Coit was hitting threes from every heavenly covered shot. When Michigan was down by 9 Kenpom still had them 76% to win. Maryland went 14-27 from three and Michigan still covered the Kenpom spread. This game was the script for Michigan to lose a game and won by 18. Brian reads Yaxel's boxscore poetically because it deserves it. Solomon Washington got ejected for two technicals. Michigan navigated foul trouble and you probably didn't even notice. Michigan is actually top 50 in three point shooting. 

Starts at 1:38:12 They went up by 30 at halftime and only won by 30?? What are we even doing here. You look at some of these top 50, top 25 teams on the schedule, could they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor? No way. Being #1 in two point defense with this schedule is insane. Michigan is identifying their weaknesses and working on them, that's terrifying for opposing teams. What is this team's weakness now? Hey, shout out to undefeated Nebrasketball!  MUSIC:

• "PH Suite"—Curtis Dro and Lamar Woods
• "Man I Need"—Olivia Dean
• "I Got Flavor"—LaRussell and Lil John
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Proportioning outrage: Sherrone, the maximum. Athletics department? Don't know but suspect people knew for a long time and didn't react until they got information they had to act on.
• The assistant he had an affair with? We don't know—not exonerated but also let's be conscious that sharing her name and photo and history of an unfamous person irreversibly makes her famous for This, for life. It also has a chill effect on other women caught in illicit relationships with powerful men, and we have a public interest in making sure that math favors coming forward, not participating in the cover-up.
• What is going on here that we don't have a control mechanism? Brian: I don't trust Warde in this situation because we saw the process for Mel Pearson. No faith this was handled appropriately.
• Who lied to you Sam? Sam: for certain, Sherrone lied. That wasn't the only basis for his report. Michigan investigated or "looked into it" and they didn't have credible evidence until yesterday when the woman came forward. (He doesn't say this but I took it to mean she lied to the investigators originally). 
• Brian: Warde Manuel has done nothing in 11 years but bumble from one crises to another.
• Sam: A coverup did take place, between the involved parties. What could Michigan have done to reveal it? We don't know. What brought it to light was she came forward.
• Argument with Craig over the Wilmer Hale report over Mel Pearson: Craig doesn't like the report, argues for due process; Brian and Seth found the report credible and included you-have-to-fire-him level offenses, and Warde sat on it for months.

Other Thing Discussed: Candidates

• Kalen DeBoer: If he'll listen.
• Minter: think we can work around the show-cause, might not be able to work around the fact he's in line for NFL jobs.
• Jeff Brohm: Proven coach, Louisville alum but would listen.
• Jason Eck: Former Wisconsin OL and line coach who's a cultural fit, only been a HC for 4 years and only New Mexico for one year. Think he's a Harbaugh after 1 year at Stanford.
• Wildcard: Jay Harbaugh.
• Bad ideas are bad ideas.
• Seth notes insanity is possible, e.g. John Harbaugh might come available. Also hiring a coach these days won't be on the AD; you bring in consultants for this sort of thing. It's a much better job than PSU right now, or the last 3 Michigan coaching searches when we were trying to replace Lloyd Carr without paying anybody, trying to find someone who will debase himself to work for Dave Brandon, or Harbaugh-or-bust with a program coming out of a Hoke low. Michigan job today is you get to pick your staff, maybe pick your AD, and inherit Bryce Underwood and a roster built for success with a top 2 or 3 (maybe even #1) NIL war chest.
• Will DeBoer listen? Math has changed: Alabama fans are holding him to an unreasonable standard based on what Saban did during a time when Alabama had more advantages over Michigan than they did now.
• Sam: Think DeBoer will listen. If not for that Playoff selection they were ready to run him out of town. People there are expecting him to have the success Saban had in a system that does not afford him the same advantages that Nick Saban had.
• Brohm will listen too.
• Sam: Loves Brent Key (also his alma mater), but how much of his success is Hayes King? Lea same thing; why not hire Diego Pavia.
• Floor: Jedd Fisch, is fine, not a high ceiling, or might be. He's done what we would want to see at Arizona and Washington.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Sibling Rivalry" -- PUP
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

A very silly debate not worth publishing preceded the actual intro of this podcast. A split against Michigan State is a very fair result, the whole series was intense. The first period of the Saturday game was an onslaught that Michigan relatively survived, Jack Ivankovic has been solid. How many first and second rounders were in this game? The answer is in the double digits. Is the Big Ten the best hockey league in the world outside of the NHL? Most of the time this team looks dominant but looking back on that Wisconsin series and the first period against MSU on Saturday shows some concerning trends where Michigan can't get out of their own zone. Minnesota is surprisingly not what they've been in the last few years. 

Starts at 26:05

Michigan is putting up demolitions not even predicted by Kenpom. If Michigan puts up a reasonable number of 3s there's just no way to beat them. What did Rutgers even do... get to 41% from 2? Well Michigan shot 72% from 2. They've played the 8th hardest schedule in the country, what even is there to say? Morez Johnson is shooting 3s now. Michigan had more offensive rebounds than misses from 2. Cadeau had an alarming turnover rate earlier in the season and most of those have gone away. Is Yaxel the alpha guy for scoring? Do you need one when you win games by 40? Roddy Gayle is rounding into the guy we originally thought he would be. The floor on this team is so high, if they shot 15% from 3 they'd probably still win by 10. The only teams that look mildly threatening on the schedule are Michigan State and Purdue. USC is also spicier than we thought. Michigan is now favored in every single game on the schedule. 

Starts at 54:31

Takes hotter than Curt Cignetti walking off the field after beating Ohio State 13-10 to win the Big Ten Championship and reacting in NO WAY WHATSOEVER. Savion Hiter is the number one running back in the country and he has the tape to back it up. Brady Smigiel and Tommy Carr come in at QB, they won't see the field for a while but then you could have a redshirt sophomore starting after Bryce leaves. It's nice to see Michigan recruit like they have 105 guys in a class. Michigan loses a wide receiver but picks up Travis Johnson, also Brady Marchese and Jaylen Pile. Would've been nice to get a slot guy but nice to get a few receivers. They're all early enrolees. Matt Ludwig comes in at tight end and is the number one player in Montana, close enough to Idaho. Michigan should get tight ends from American Samoa and Alaska. Mason Bonner comes in from Colorado, keep an eye on him down the road. Malakai Lee is the headlining offensive lineman out of Hawaii, Bear McWhorter is an all-name nominee. Marky Walbridge is a quintessential under-scouted player. 

Starts at 1:20:32 Carter Meadows is the #6 overall player in the class, he could be the first overall player in the draft if he projects how he's supposed to. Taco Charlton comparison? Tariq Boney is the other edge, described as a violent high motor style. Titan Davis is Chris Wormley shaped but could move to defensive tackle, McHale Blade might be the most underrated guy in this class. Alister Vallejo, the Mason Graham comparison! He's a lot of peoples' favorite player in this class (a class with two five stars). Could he help next year? Many linebackers, mostly flyers and not an instant-impact class. Do not trust AI in your recruiting history research. The defensive back class is a little light, all four stars though. Jordan Deck is a Makari Paige kind of guy. They get a kicker who kicks and a longsnapper who long snaps, yay. Kerry Coombs comes in as special team coordinator.  MUSIC:

• "Train Love"—Yor Old Droog
• "MAGIC"—Vince Staples and Mustard
• "I Need a Lover"—John Couger
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Offense had some neat ideas in the run game, not so much the passing game.
• Problem with not running read options all year is Bryce blew too many of them.
• Sherrone is a run guy, had some great run tweaks, but it ended up costing them in the passing game as Bryce was cold—gotta throw on early downs if you're going to be a successful passing team.
• Defensively it was worse when we looked. "Only 27 points" is because they only had nine possessions and one of the killed the game in the 3rd and 4th quarter.
• Wink: Not great. Felt mailed in, no interesting ideas, and the ideas he did have were bad ones, like delayed blitzes that won't get to Sayin until it's too late, or showing his hand. Sayin was never confused: he read out what he planned to.
• Sam not a fan of spot-dropping. That was most of the defense this game; in the past Michigan's used a lot more switch and poach coverages. Wink is too easy to see coming, and that's not going to change. We're ready to move on, hope he is as well.
• Differences aren't all on Wink: Ernest Hausmann was a big loss, and a big difference last year. Josiah Stewart was and The Gifts were a big deal last year. Getting off the field on 3rd & 3 is when those playmakers have to do something, and Michigan didn't have those guys.

SIGNING DAY

• Got interesting yesterday. Big money plays at Zion Robinson, Travis Johnson and (from UNC) Julian Walker. Michigan is either getting Zion Robinson (who got a big offer from Syracuse) or Georgia commit Brady Marchese—if Calvin Russell is serious then they'll work that out separately.
• Julian Walker is deciding today; his connection to Michigan in the first place was his dad, isn't sure he wants to leave home, which is understandable. If he goes to UNC it's just money.
• Hiter was just a misunderstanding when his contract came and they got it cleared up eventually.
• Underrated guys in the class: Alister Vallejo (we love), McHale Blade (fell too far after his injury) and Tommy Carr (we think he's better than Brady Smigiel, not better than Bourque).

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Smarter Than You" -- The Undertones
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

Good thing this is pivoting to being a snacks podcast. Combos are way up there as far as gas station snacks go. Every time Ohio State got into a 3rd down situation they would just drop back and throw it to an open receiver. When Michigan was in this situation, Ohio State would just man up and Bryce had nowhere to throw. Those substitutions that happened all season continued in this game. Is trophy done going brrr? You cannot have this many holes in your team and expect to compete with Ohio State. The offensive line didn't look as dominated as it seemed, if Jordan Marshall and Justice Haynes played the whole game they'd probably break some more big runs. It didn't seem like Chip Lindsey brought much into this game that was built off of what they had been doing all season. Maybe Bryce froze up (pun not intended) a bit. He only had five throws at halftime? Guarnera actually looked really good, Frazier and Sprague held their ground. The reasons this offense didn't shine this season weren't because of the offensive line. Who's even going to sit out on offense in the bowl game? 

Starts at 29:05

Giving up 27 points to Ohio State seems not that bad but we're still done with Wink. Ohio State's 3rd down conversions were the easiest possible. Neither Barham nor Derrick Moore got anywhere near Sayin all game. The 5-2 came back... It's year two, the defense shouldn't be this simplified. Yes, simplify it early on but it cannot be simplified against Ohio State. He learned nothing from the USC game, Wink needs to get fired and if he isn't then that's on Sherrone. There was a 20 play 81 yard field goal drive that took 12 minutes off the clock. That goal line stand was nice, though. Ohio State was at their own 10 but the backups were in?? Also it's a Fox broadcast, there's plenty of time to rest your starters during tv timeouts! There's a lot of work that needs to be done on the defensive line going into next year. The waves of elite defensive tackles has run its course. 

Starts at 53:38

Takes hotter than... idk. I'm out of ideas just like Michigan's coaches. The first sign that it was over was when Ohio State declined a holding call and then held Michigan on 3rd and 5. Zvada made field goals and a mob didn't have to come after Brian (they would've been right to do so). Hollenbeck had an 11 yard punt. Keeping Andrew Marsh just to fair catch punts is a valuable skill, don't make him a kick returner though. Kicking field goals early on 4th down felt like the right thing at the time, it could've been a stupid blizzard game later. You'd trust Zvada to make these field goals more than you'd trust the offense to get six yards in the redzone. Apparently an Ohio State player had head butted a Michigan player and Barham was demonstrating - but also don't do that. Jeremiah Smith almost had the funniest application of the worst rule in football. There were a lot of Ohio State fans at this game, how does that keep happening? Were there Ohio State fans near you and if so what was the experience near them like? 

Starts at 1:25:11 Oregon 26, Washington 14 Washington's hyped offense just never came true in any of their big games this year. Oregon locks up a playoff bid, they'll probably get the G5 bid or the ACC champions. Penn State 40, Rutgers 36 Congrats to Penn State on getting bowl eligibility. This was a shootout. Tamper with the Rutgers receivers.  Minnesota 17, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin is not good.  Michigan State 38, Maryland 28 Jonathan Smith was fired after this recording. There might've been 10,000 fans at this game but the weather kept a lot of people home.  Illinois 20, Northwestern 13 Snow game!  Iowa 40, Nebraska 16 Just a first half blowout without much effort in the 2nd half. A very disappointing ending to Nebraska's season. Nebraska is 2-10 the last three years in November. USC 29, UCLA 10 UCLA lead at halftime and then USC ran away with it in the 2nd half.  Indiana 56, Purdue 3 A year after Indiana gave Purdue their worst loss in the rivalry they give Purdue their first home loss in the rivalry. MUSIC:

• "Colors Change"—Tanks and Bangas
• "Too Good Too Bad"—Jason Scott and the High Heat
• "My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Sunday the Band

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: The show notes.] 

---------------------

starts at the top

Forecast is wind and snow, the real blizzard arriving after the game. Other than one guard they all range from solid to stars. They're back to what they were in 2021-'22, with a future 1st round QB in Julian Sayin who reads leverage on Ryan Day's standard multi-level drag routes and throws to the guys getting open. Those guys: Jeremiah Smith, the future #1 overall pick, and Carnell Tate, who will be a 1st rounder this year. Both have been banged up, but we think they're both going to play and more or less be themselves, with an excuse banked if they lose. Where they've advanced is they use a lot more two-TE sets, particularly Max Klare, a true blocky+catchy hybrid who may necessitate a hybrid response. They use the TEs in clever RPOs to create space for Sayin's throws, and are good enough in the run game with Bo Jackson to punish you for overplaying pass.

starts at 16:59

Be afraid. Illinois gained 295 yards on 4.2 YPP and Washington gained 234 yards on 4.4 YPP. Alex Drain does not like Matt Patricia, but he's slimmed down himself and his playbook and has Ohio State playing at an elite level. That's Caleb Downs, the guy Corum juked for a touchdown in the Rose Bowl, and now the best player in football, who's allowed to rove around and make plays while they man you with everybody else. It's also the play of their linebackers; Sonny Styles was the guy Corum juked on the 6-5 touchdown, but was always supremely talented and is at the peak of his game. Arvelle Reese was another big recruit; he came on last year and is in the conversation to go 1st overall as a grow-a-Parsons. He can be a safety, a DE, a linebacker, or anything.

They can get away with all of that man and blitzing LBs because Igninosu, Matthews, and Styles are excellent athletes in coverage, and the Big Ten doesn't like to flag their grabbiness. The next generation of DBs is coming up—you remember trying to recruit Aaron Scott and Bryce West, plus #8 overall Devin Sanchez.

They replaced four superstars on the DL with a superstar, a star, and two Just-Guys. Kayden McDonald is the lone member who wasn't a top-50 recruit but he's the star, and is probably a step too far Crippen and Guarnera. Caden Curry made the leap; he's Jack Sawyer 2.0, a strong pass-rusher and a force against the run. Kenyatta Jackson is equally strong against the run but is a block-and-done rusher. Tywone Malone has been there for ages.

starts at 31:49 and 44:49

Beat Auburn by 30 and SDSU and Zaga by 40. Teams came into this thinking they could blitz Michigan's ball screens, Michigan came in having practiced their response to it. Zaga thruck? Look who took their shots—those aren't their shooters. The defense has been incredible; Morez allows you to be switchable when Mara is off the court and when he's on there's nowhere to go with the ball. Zaga had to take a bunch of push shots from 12 feet that are good shots for them, but that's not going to sustain an offense. Cason is coming around, though the offense is still much smoother with Cadeau. Turnovers are going to be the thing for this team again; when they get anything like even shot volume they're murder because their threes are open and they have all of these guys who score at the rim. Yaxel is becoming the Weapon that he was thought to be in the portal, but is extra dangerous because he doesn't have to be. Big-big actions are going to have to level up now that teams are sitting on them. This is where you bring in Tschetter, because a team that prepared for Johnson is out of sorts.

If it wasn't for Brad Dumont I might still be in the Rose Bowl parking lot. Brad recognized us, let us in his car, and took us to Randy Sklar's place in time to catch Washington vs. Texas. He also put on the music of his then-14-year-old son Nate. Part of this had to be the fact Michigan had just won 26-20 in overtime in Nick Saban's last game. Also these kids rocked. It's relatable catchy stuff with a funky rhythm that's way more advanced than anyone ought to be at that age. Apparently in the two years since these high schoolers have picked up a following in the Pasadena music scene, but were getting in at the bottom floor; these are the two songs they've recorded so far. Trouble in Paradise was the one we were bouncing around to like middle-aged Mikey Sainristils. Rewind hits right now. Also give it up for a four-piece band when all the stuff that gets pushed these days are from solo artists and collabs. You can make fun of me now then turn this on for the ride home after we win.

Songs:

• Rewind
• Trouble in Paradise

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Celebrate the Reckless" -- The Magic Giant
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

It doesn't feel good to just beat up on Maryland the week before The Game. Dave explains a soft and gooey snack for all of you to enjoy. Bryce was okay! He's worked on a nice seam route with an arc to Marlin Klein that he didn't have before the bye. And a dig route! There was one bad pass which was a tough throw to make anyways. Can he go and win The Game? Probably if the defense can do enough. This was never going to be a challenge for the offensive line but they exceeded expectations anyways. The Ohio State game might be a bridge too far, though. Kuzdzal is a step down from Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall but he's got some juice. They succeeded on wedge! Andrew Marsh almost completed the Odell Beckham?? He's a star going forward. Marlin Klein hurdled a fool, Goodwin had a few catches. It was nice of Maryland to just run into themselves and let Michigan do what they wanted. 

Starts at 34:09

There was an opening drive touchdown with various guys being offsides again, but then there wasn't much until the backups came in. Pleeeease do not be rotating the back-seven against Ohio State all game. Derrick Moore has 11 sacks, imagine if he played more! Ernest Hausmann did not travel, Cole Sullivan was back (and possibly a little rusty). This performance didn't build confidence in holding Ohio State to 10 points again, a lot of Maryland receivers were running open. Brandyn Hillman had another good game, maybe that mini-suspension was the best thing for his career. He was even directing players into position. Some of Maryland's drops count as triple drops. There's just not much interior rush from this defensive line, maybe play Barham at linebacker against OSU so you can blitz him. Does Wink actually call plays without knowing or caring which personnel are out there? This year you don't have the two best defensive tackles in America and you can't bait Ryan Day into running into a six man box. 

Starts at 56:08

Takes hotter than yours truly after he got through the hot takes intro and had to re-do them because the Sklars dropped out of the call. Brian broke Zvada. Chase Taylor gets +4 on the onside kick recovery, that did not feel good. There was no punting from Michigan so we don't have to complain about punting. Marsh had some nice punt returns?? End of first half time management was less than ideal, Goodwin lined up in the wrong spot and they should've called timeout. Stop jumping offside! The late hit by Brandt was a weak call, so was the one on Bryce Underwood. Every replay angle was field-level and somehow they're contradictory? 

Starts at 1:19:43 Oregon 42, USC 27 A close-ish looking boxscore but Oregon scored 28 first half points. Oregon has figured out some things after the Indiana game, they're in the 99th percentile in opportunity run rate. They're starting to look like the championship team they were hoping to be.  Iowa 20, Michigan State 17 Iowa pulls out a classic game that they don't deserve to win. MSU QB Alessio Milivojevic punted three times. Michigan State's 8 game losing streak is tied for the 2nd longest, the program record is 10. Tickets for MSU vs Maryland at Ford Field after the game are free!  Northwestern 38, Minnesota 35 An offensive explosion game! Northwestern wins at Wrigley for the first time in 8 attempts.  Wisconsin 27, Illinois 10 Neither team gets to 300 yards of offense. This was the first time all season that Wisconsin scored in the first and second quarter.  Penn State 37, Nebraska 10 The Grunk throws 12 times for 181 yards, that'll do it. Nebraska goes 1 of 6 on 4th down. Who is Penn State's number 1 coaching candidate?  Washington 48, UCLA 14 The Huskies continue to play without some of their stars but still blew out UCLA Ohio State 42, Rutgers 9 Ugh MUSIC:

• "Feel It Again"—Winyah
• "Drugs"—Philharmonik Live from NPR Tiny Desk
• "DBZ"—Your Old Droog and Method Man
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: The Band Feel

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

Not necessarily in this order.

starts at around noon

They have a kid quarterback too, but Malik Washington doesn't have an offensive line or a running game to help him. He does have a redzone threat in Shaleak Knotts and a couple of other productive receivers. That offensive line is the problem—their left tackle is from Central Connecticut State and he's not even their worst OL. Their TE room is banged up and bad at blocking. The RB and TE are good receivers but don't contribute much to the run game either, and somebody on this team has to protect the QB.

starts at around 12:20 PM

They're very young—younger than we are. Remember when Jalen Huskey picked off JJ McCarthy in the endzone? Hint: it was the game JJ threw interceptions in 2023 and made us feel bad briefly. They're opportunistic in the secondary, and won some games early in the season because they pick the ball off. They also have some transfers who make the passing game tough sledding: an Ohio vagabond who gets the backfield, a true freshman pass rusher that M had its eye on. Safeties are the returning starters and the best part of the defense, but have to hang back and clean up after the kids. Prescription: pound 'em.

starts around 12:40 PM

This team can be maddening. They have eight to nine starters who will take over a game or throw it away on any given possession. Aday Mara can be inconsistent even when his height isn't, and that's why they're 6th in Kenpom. Team fixed its rebounding issues and sprung some major turnover issues that allowed MTSU back into a game they were out of, before they were out of it again. The Blue Raiders settled for a lot of jumpers—contested threes or pullup other twos, while M is scoring 1.4 PPP at the rim. That formula is going to work against a lot of teams, but San Diego State and Auburn are going to be real threats.

starts at around 1:00 PM

Andrew Marsh, come on down. Already on star watch and boy do we like that. Bryce was pretty good except when he threw a REALLY BAD freshman interception and an only kinda bad OC interception because they went to the well one too many times against Robert Fitzgerald, who balled out. Run game: Jordan Marshall is special but Bryson Kuzdzal is playable. Offensive line continues to do well against this level of competition; got 70% of their available yards against a very good defense.

Defensively Seth thinks he's figured out (finally) why Michigan's rotations are what they are, in part because Michigan finally figured out their rotations. They also tried a new 3-3-5 defensive strategy that uses Barham as a linebacker and Hausmann as a hybrid, but it suffered the same fate as a lot of Wink ideas when he springs something new. Fine games from Brandyn Hillman and Mason Curtis; not as mad at Bowles as I thought we'd be. Cam Brandt: that's still weird, at least in pass rush, but he did some things in the run game to justify himself again.

You know here at MGoBlog we're fans of the un-Googleable. The Band Feel, which will be at The Pig in a few weeks, looks, acts, and sounds like a lost act from the early 1970s. But man does it ever work now, and it's not like the psychedelic ideas stopped coming when all the Zeppelin knockoffs drank themselves into glam. The Band Feel picks up where Beck, Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. left off, but they also work in all the threads that have been developed since. The hit is "Shoal Creek" which sounds like a long lost Led Zeppelin song, but I stumbled on "Fly Birdy, Fly" which weaves in some of the bluegrassy ideas that became country back into rock. Goodbye Virginia is off their 2024 EP but the others are from their newest album Into the Sun.

Songs:

• Icarus
• Fly Birdy, Fly
• Goodbye Virginia

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

FOOTBALL v NORTHWESTERN

• When not being a terrible freshman Bryce was a five-star freshman. Some incredible throws in this one. Not that mad about 2nd interception because that was on the OC.
• Lindsey's gameplan of RPOs (ten Split Flows!) was perfect against Dantonio-style quarters. Got 70% of their yards, which is more important for future performance.
• RPOs were also good for getting Bryce feeling comfortable. We have a freshman but also a five-star, and he looked like one. Sam: Note the first drive was downfield passing!
• That throw to Andrew Marsh: wow.
• Shoutout to NW safety Robert Fitzgerald. Let's tamper with that guy!
• Andrew Marsh: What a perfect guy to be coming through.

MARYLAND PREVIEW

• They're young with no running game to fall back on so they lose games. Gotta win jump balls against their big receivers. Malik Washington will be a good one, but no OL and no run game. Their defense is also young and mistake-prone.

BIG TEN PRIVATE EQUITY DEAL ON HOLD, MICHIGAN AND USC FTW?

• Why the other schools want it:

1. They're all in big debt because building debt (paid to their big donors) was how these non-profits made their revenue disappear while getting to keep most of it and making the ledgers balance for Title IX compliance (e.g. updates to Breslin are Women's Basketball expenditures.) Now you want to free the ledgers and the donors to pay players, so you need upfront capital to unravel the old system.
2. Lock down a portion of Michigan's revenue. MSU, NW, IU, PU, RU, IL need to lock in a share of M/OSU revenue now because if the conferences break up for a super league they're not going to be invited. The length of the media rights contract is 20 years. This is CRITICAL. Michigan State has a real chance of becoming a mid-major.
3. Ohio State wasn't on board until they got a clause giving them a bonus for selling more gear/stadium advertising. The way it's structured now they get more money than Michigan, which is all they wanted to hear.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Sunburn" -- Fuel
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :51

This doesn't even qualify as a top five weird Northwestern game (we list our top five). This week's snack of the week is organic pumpkin seeds. On one level, this kinda looked like Michigan's best game of the year on offense and defense. Michigan comes out slinging it and Bryce's confidence seemed like it was at another level, but he made young mistakes. What happened on Bryce's sacks? Playing Northwestern always kinda feels like they have your signs. Michigan was able to counter some of Northwestern's defensive counters. Most of the mistakes are coming from freshmen which is just something that happens. Missed cuts on zone is whatever but missed cuts on power isn't good. Bryson Kuzdzal came in and did just fine. Bryce's scrambles were pretty good and mostly improvisation, his interceptions were freshman stuff. Safeties were baiting him, can he anticipate that in the future? The first interception was not understanding how to read the coverage, the second one was just needing to throw the ball better. Andrew Marsh made the Michigan catch of the year, you have a dedicated receiver going into next year. You could have 12 of 14 boxes in a great position next year. Andrew Marsh is the best freshman receiver since... Manningham? How much does this performance mean against Ohio State? The reverse fumble is on Chip Lindsey. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 44:15

Northwestern came into this game with a pretty good ground game and they got stuffed. This was a good game to run the 5-2 in, Northwestern is on the opposite end of the spectrum from USC. Northwestern's gamesmanship cost them two false starts, Michigan tipped what they were running multiple times. The defensive backs got beat a few times but sometimes a receiver just makes a nice play over you. You probably don't want to put Zeke Berry on Jeremiah Smith, Jyaire Hill is getting his star back. Brandyn Hillman tackled with his arms! He's grown as a much more mature player over the season. They're defending screens now! TJ Metcalf body-slammed a guy.  

Starts at 1:08:55

Takes hotter than suburban Chicago in mid-November. There seems to be differing views on how much people liked this venue for a football game. The camera shots were weird. Seth and Dave think the inside of the stadium is magical, Brian not so much. It might've actually been 90% Michigan fans. They did the best they could with clock management at the end of the first half. What about timeouts at the end of the second half? Zvada kicked the ball into the street outside of the stadium. Brian takes responsibility for the missed field goals by changing the preview. Semaj got replaced, he's a better player than he's performed but he may be overdue for a mental health break. 4th down decisions. NFL calculator says there's a complete coin flip in decision making. It shouldn't be a holding call if you're getting your ass kicked. Semaj was on the ground with the ball but they didn't overturn the fumble? There's no transparency between officiating and the fans, other conferences and sports are getting better at it.

Starts at 1:59:37 USC 26, Iowa 21 Iowa jumped out to a nice lead but scored zero points in the second half. The Hawkeyes lost three offensive linemen. The universe is paying them back for all the 10 win seasons they had no business having. USC is now a legitimate playoff contender.  Indiana 31, Wisconsin 7 This was a sludge fart for Indiana in the first half but put it away in the second. Wisconsin is one of the worst Big Ten offenses ever contemplated. Most of Wisconsin's offense was off of a couple weird plays.  Penn State 28, Michigan State 10 A rock fight between two of the worst teams in the league. Michigan State had 15 wins over the last three years... well at least they did. Penn State won the very ugly trophy which might actually be the best trophy and they looked like they really wanted it. Illinois 24, Maryland 6 Maryland is not even trying to run the ball anymore. Illinois ground them to a pulp. Don't throw at Maryland, just run them over.  Washington 49, Purdue 13 Washington doubles Purdue in yardage and most of that was likely garbage time for Purdue.  Oregon 42, Minnesota 13  This feels like danger zone for PJ Fleck. They could lose to Wisconsin?? Ohio State 48, UCLA 10 UCLA is without Nico in this game, their backup has never thrown a college pass. UCLA is moving out of the Rose Bowl??  MUSIC:

• "Slow Burn"—The Rose City Band
• "Swans"—Maston
• "Optimism"—Jana Horn
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra  

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklar Brothers, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: Terry Klein

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

Not necessarily in this order.

starts at the top

They're fine. Their offense plods but for one good receiver or when their QB throws an INT, which he's got accuracy problems that were visible when he was a Rhett Ashlee QB at SMU. Their defense is decent, rotates, plays sound football of a Lloyd variety. Alex likes edge Aidan Hubbard more than Michael Kilbane (whom PFF prefers). Their DTs are a little undersized so they jump behind the line of scrimmage, which Nebraska was able to exploit down the stretch.

starts at 13:56

What's it like being a Northwestern fan these days? It's spending $800 million on an unnecessary stadium instead of players, because you can't put your name on players.

starts at 27:45

How many ways can we say Mara is a star? Defensive ceiling is ridiculous. Three-big lineup needs a name. We also talk about Matt D's findings regarding the defensive play of Michigan's guards, which was not at all what we expected.

starts at 44:58

Young offensive line plus Zack Marshall and Jalen Hoffman continue to be good blockers—might meet their match vs Ohio State. Jordan Marshall is a beast. Bryce's second half wasn't great either—he was not feeling comfortable in the pocket, missed some RPO reads he made earlier. Need a bye to get right. Defensively, I wasn't mad about Wink. Don't say on the internet that I was mad. Defensively the kids were not alright and the defensive rotations were still weird, but more explainable given the injury circumstances. Long drives were explainable until Purdue figured out they were just running nail (where you insert a blitzing LB as a 5th lineman and play 5-1). Interested in Lugard Edokpayi.

I usually don't go for country music, but I do when it's made by Terry Klein (LSA 1995), a folk country artist from Austin who's been touring festivals the most hallowed singer-songwriter venues across the country for decades, and reading a lot of MGoBlog between stops. His last album Leave the Light On won a bunch of acclaim, making American Songwriter's list of the best records released in 2023. His fifth album, Hill Country Folk Music, just came out.

Songs:

• I Used To Be Cool
• The Dirty Third
• The Job Interview Song    

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

HOOPS

• Craig and the Half a Head story vis a vis Tarik Skubal.
• Aday Mara holy crap. He was last year's on-off numbers while playing 37/45 minutes. When he was on the floor Wake Forest was 27% at the rim.
• M needs to figure out the rest. Loosening balls but not converting them to turnovers. Have three bigs on the floor and none know how to box out because they were the rebounding alphas.
• Three Bigs? Don't think it's going to work because Morez Johnson taking a three in the flow of the offense isn't going to work. The point of Yaxel is to make him a four, so you're effectively using Johnson at small forward. Maybe if you also make Mara a Wolf-level assist guy?
• They won a game when they shot 16% from three; if they can be 33% from three and have Mara's defense it's over.
• Don't overreact to Lendeborg's start: injured hand and Wake was a weird team that didn't have big tradeoffs from switching only 6'7" guy on Lendeborg to another.
• Loose balls: not boxing out when they're not boxing out, the way they play is everyone can be aggressive on their man and you have a behemoth, so nobody's facing the ball when he knocks it loose. Defense needs to be more aggressive: You saw Gayle got it; he overplayed on the perimeter and got some turnovers because if they cut behind you you're still covered.
• Wake's first shots sucked.
• LJ's thing is he goes in the lane, but this team doesn't have a lot of perimeter shooting.
• Tschetter's defense doesn't match well with this team, but he can get you threes. Was hoping he could be on the court with Johnson and Mara but he can't unless Morez can take threes.
• Trey McKenney was a revelation on defense. He knows where to be, has that length.
• Can they run offense without Cadeau on the court? Cadeau also needs to be more careful with the ball—deserved six turnovers.

FOOTBALL

• Northwestern Preview: Low-scoring game. They're good on defense, they're interception-prone, they're best at putting two TEs on the field and running OZ and Duo; Michigan might be able to play two-DTs. When they do well they get movement on the front.
• Caleb Tiernan: Always loved Northwestern.
• If we're in a match of who can out-1950s the other give me Michigan's OL and Jordan Marshall.
• If M gets an explosive they can look for it in the RPO game: NWern can't go to their 3rd safety and their SS is a 6'4"/220 hybrid guy. Maybe get him against Marsh?
• Barham at edge or linebacker? I vote linebacker, because that makes them tell you how they're going to set up.

TONY PETTITI IS GOING TO END THE BIG TEN

• Trying to pass their their "pay-day loan" (thank you Regent Bernstein) over the objections of Michigan and USC is the way they get Michigan to leave when the Grant of Rights expires. When all of these are mid-majors in 20 years remember this moment, and the idiots trying to solve today's problems with a cash infusion that future fans will have to pay for.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Northern Lights" -- Kennie
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :53

Everyone said "nice" at the halftime of this game. At first it didn't seem like the results meant much because Oakland looked really bad, but then they went and had a close game against Purdue. How much can you gather about Michigan fromhere? Trey McKenney was 6-8 from three and looked the part. He also had four assists and no turnovers, there were some Darius Morris qualities about him. Do they go with the very big rotation with Yaxel out? Will Tschetter seems to get more minutes when Yaxel is out, would like to see him step up as a four year player. Wake Forest was a bubble team last year and look like one this year, that game will tell us more about Michigan. 

Starts at 21:31 In reverse Kenpom order Penn State They're bad.

Rutgers How is this team even going to score a basket? They have seven teams scheduled in the 200s.  Minnesota Niko Medved's first year at Minnesota, but the roster does not look good. They'll compete with Rutgers and Penn State for the bottom spot. Oregon 35th in the preseason but have fallen considerably after a one point win over Hawaii and a four point win over Rice. They have a transfer from Elon, the Oregon NIL budget must be focusing on football.  Maryland The only Big Ten team with a loss. They shot terribly against Georgetown and were only in it because they scored 30 points off of free throws.  Northwestern They bring back Nick Martinelli, the guy who makes the worst shots you've ever seen (complimentary). They've blown out Mercyhurst and Boston, which would be impressive if it was hockey. Their center looks like Elvis. Washington Very young team starting two freshmen and two sophomores.  Nebrasketball Sam Hoiberg is still playing a majority of minutes, but at least the mustache is gone. They bring in the Icelandic Unicorn.  Iowa Ben McCollum's first year. Tavion Banks looked great at Drake last year but will probably hit a wall against the Big Ten.  Ohio State They beat IU Indianapolis 118-102, eek. They've retained a few players which is a big thing in college basketball now.  Michigan State More continuity and the best win in the Big Ten so far (69-66 over Arkansas). They're very experienced. They were awful at three point shooting a year ago and so far they're at 20% this year. This doesn't seem like a team that's going to win the league by three games but they didn't look like that last year.  Indiana Year one for Darian DeVries. They bring in a lot of new players and we don't know what to expect. This team is loaded with seniors. They're going to do what they do and then go away.  UCLA Mick Cronin is awesome, actually. How can a team starting Xavier Booker at center be? They have shooting but defense and rebounding are big questions. What if Mick Cronin yells at them more? USC Hey it's Terrance Williams. USC is surprisingly putting together a basketball program. Wisconsin They're 18th in Kenpom and looking at the roster doesn't make sense. There's no bench, either.  Purdue They bring back Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Fletcher Loyer is also back. Their 10 point win over Oakland was awkward. Jack Benter is an interesting freshman at guard. You can't second guess Matt Painter but they're missing their classic giant center that they build around.  Illinois This team is huge. They absolutely blew out Jackson State and Florida Gulf Coast. Pronounce Ivisic, or Petrovic, or Stojakovic, or Jakstsys.   

Starts at 1:15:30

Takes hotter than the opposite of Kinnick Stadium, that looked miserable. Michigan split with Wisconsin over the weekend in a return to reality series. But it felt like worse than a split for what got exposed. Michigan couldn't get out of their zone but most teams on the schedule won't be able to replicate what Wisconsin did. Goalie Jack Ivankovic also just had a bad weekend which happens. Friday was such a fun game that was getting ruined by piped in music. They're being told to turn it down. Wisconsin seemed to really get under Michigan's skin and the frustration came out. The Big Ten is one of the best hockey leagues in the world and the league barely broadcasts games.   

Starts at 1:45:28 Indiana 27, Penn State 24  Absolutely bonkers ending. The final two catches were amazing. This game raised questions about Indiana's ability to block next-level guys. Mendoza was pressured on 50% of dropbacks. Penn State did start the season with a group of players you would've thought would do that, though. All Penn State quarterbacks are now "The Grunk". Indiana was 2-25 against Penn State coming into this game and this was their first ever win in Happy Valley, the feels are still amazing for Hoosiers fans.  Oregon 18, Iowa 16 Oregon went into Kinnick during a rain storm and got almost the full Iowa experience (except that the safety happened to Iowa). The only stat that matters is that Oregon survived a November night(ish) game in Kinnick, survive and advance in that scenario.  Wisconsin 13, Washington 10 Played in similar conditions as Oregon vs Iowa, except this game sucked! Wisconsin's lead passer was the punter. This was a Big Ten West game and someone had to lose. If this wasn't in a sleet storm then Demond Williams probably gets more than 134 passing yards.  Nebraska 28, UCLA 21 Nebraska QB TJ Lateef goes 13/15 for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dylan Raiola who? This was a very Big Ten game with limited possessions because both teams ran the ball a lot. Nebraska goes through so many running backs but might've finally found a guy. Rutgers 35, Maryland 20 Rutgers' running back Antwan Raymond rushed for 240 yards but Rutgers got outrushed. Maryland had six explosive plays and had a -0.4 EPA outside of those. Rutgers rescued their bowl hopes. USC 38, Northwestern 17 The boxscore is a blowout. USC had a fake punt pass that wasn't even legal. Why did they pull that out against Northwestern? It was close at the time. Ohio State 34, Purdue 10 merp MUSIC:

• "Feel For Love"—Michigan Rattlers
• "What's It All Mean"—Philharmonik
• "Sin Triangle"—Sidney Gish
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

• Bryce Underwood: Progress isn't linear.
• Jordan Marshall and the offensive line: The redshirt freshmen will save us! They're already playing at close to a Big Ten level.
• Defense: Purdue was very college crappe. I asked them to be vanilla, they were, and I'll take my lumps.
• Mad at special teams for not putting them back enough because the way Purdue plays they need to be able to take a TFL or a sack, or need to have a 4th down strategy.
• We're rotating an extreme amount, also there are extreme levels of injury: Any team that loses Rolder, Sullivan, and Barham isn't going to be great at LB. Protected the kids by blitzing them.
• Vance disappointed in the DTs: they were in the wrong gap sometimes on those LB blitzes. I saw Pierce do that once in the 1st half, haven't gotten to the 2nd half yet. DTs to me are Benny & Pierce, then a big gap to a lot of innings eaters, where Etta is more of a pass-rush option and Payne, Williams and Ike.
• You're playing a tempo team and they're only in there for three snaps. Running the DTs on and off the field is wearing them out as much as playing. Three snaps is three deadlifts of a 300-pound guy, then you're sprinting a 300+ pound body off the field.
• Too much rotation: They got on a 19-play drive with a quarter break and at no point in that drive did Michigan have their best available players on the field at over 50% of the spots.
• Brandt is not on Moore's or Guy's level. Ratios are way off. Brandt plays as much as Derrick, more than Guy.
• Are guys going to leave if they don't get PT? That's true but 1) That doesn't explain having starters playing 40% of snaps, 2) That's not the culture of this program. The culture of this program wasn't "You get yours" it was "Egos don't matter as much as the Team." That 2023 team had multiple "starters" because Harrell and Stewart could both play at a high level, sophomore D-Mo and McGregor could both play at a high level.
• If it's a program goal to get guys snaps against Purdue, go and beat Purdue first and then when you're up three touchdowns get your guys in.
• Offense and Bryce: He's young and doing young guy things like fleeing the pocket and forcing throws he's used to throwing. He had a terrible half and a decent half. Can't really blame Chip because he's giving him the reads, e.g. a wheel to Klein that takes advantage of Purdue taking away screens, and he throws it at Klein's feet.
• Also: he doesn't have receivers who make those plays for him when they're there. Klein should have caught that ball. Semaj had another one whistle through his hands. McCauley didn't adjust to a ball in the endzone.
• Go watch any freshman QB and you see the same things: Watch JJ in 2021. Watch Gardner when he was young.
• Go under center? Might help the run game but Crimes Against Man Panda. Craig talks about the 1939 Bears.

Men's Hoops:

• Oakland was bad. Open corners were just there, they were missing two players, run a complicated zone with a new team.
• Trey McKinney is a knockdown shooter, and he has a little Darrius Morris (RIP) in his game. He's not Mike Smith, won't have short-arm turnovers. Good sign he can use his long arms productively.
• Cadeau: Wonder if he's going to have more TOs against Wake Forest. If he can keep turnovers under control this team will be very good.
• Defense has a very high floor.
• Michigan has three bigs instead of two this year, means their second-best lineup won't be a massive drop from their best.
• Didn't have Cason, might be that sixth guy of the year (or your starting two?) who can be Plan B for point guard and competently relieve Roddy when they full-court press him.
• Solution for press: Mara? Just have the freaky tall guy pass it without putting the ball on the floor.

Women's Hoops:

• Very interesting team. They're five-out, swarming. Lots and lots of turnovers.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Irish Dubstep" -- Green Lads
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at :57

This podcast starts out telepathically but then Brian's intrusive thoughts got telepathed so it had to stop. Dave introduces the Snack of the Week. Would you rather talk about this game or Dunkaroos? Bryce Underwood - not good in the first half. A fumble on the sideline is usually harmless unless it involves the silliest rule in football. His scrambling was good but you can't build a business in this industry by scrambling, that will get you killed against Ohio State. Too many missed passes, he doesn't really settle in. By the Georgia game, JJ was probably where Bryce is now - many mistakes but you can see the talent. On the flip side, the offensive line had a great game. Purdue loaded the box but Jordan Marshall rushed for 185 yards anyways. You can't tackle him with just one guy, he will emerge from piles. This is the fourth straight game where Sprague has been incredible. Bryson Kuzdzal had some nice runs on the game-sealing drive. Tight ends were fine, more catches by Zack Marshall. There's not a lot of separation between Marshall and Klein. Semaj had way fewer snaps, Goodwin saw more time. You have six 2nd or 3rd year players on this offensive line that can absolutely play in this conference. The future of the offensive line is bright. 

Starts at 41:43

How do we even feel about the defensive performance? We've seen Purdue all season be an offense that moves the ball down the field but can't score. That happened but it felt bad. Cam Brandt was too far upfield on a couple big run plays. Why are the good defensive ends not on the field for 70% of the snaps that they should be out for? Why are the starters rotating out so much throughout the game? Assuming he's healthy, do you put Jaishawn Barham at DE or LB against Ohio State? Michigan didn't commit to a position for him and it's hurting his play. Way fewer three defensive tackle sets, yay. If your name is going to be "Michael Jackson" you need to go by "Mike". Jyaire Hill got sealed a couple times but was otherwise fine. The endzone DPI was DPI. Metcalf got sucked in during the touchdown. 

Starts at 1:06:04

Takes hotter than the amount of trouble Jason would get into if he did the Hot Takes voice at a golf tournament where he was during recording. Michigan has not been good at Special Teams Things, why are they running kickoffs out of the middle of the endzone? Another punt that Semaj didn't field that gave up 20 yards. Did Jay Harbaugh have a heat map for punting? We've never had to talk so much about shield punting positioning but now we have to. Clock management at the end of the first half was pretty on-point. Purdue's 4th down decision making was aggressive which you do if you want to try to win the game. Shout out to Michigan fans for feeding energy back into the team in the 4th quarter. The students did the shirtless thing that's become a college football thing. Also shout out to Barry Odom for getting the Purdue bench fired up. 

Starts at 1:28:22 Indiana 55, Maryland 10 This is a typical Indiana game these days. Indiana's offense is a machine. The defense is... also a machine?? Every week, Indiana has some weird defensive stat that's historical and worth tracking. Mendoza threw and interception on his first play, the game was wobbly for about a quarter.  Ohio State 38, Penn State 14 Briefly competitive in the 2nd quarter. Penn State is the first top five team in the history of college football to lose five straight games. Julian Sayin had 14 yards per attempt. Ohio State finally catches a break and gets an obvious targeting call to not get enforced.  Minnesota 23, Michigan State 20 (OT) MSU benches Aidan Chiles for Alessio Milivojevic. The Spartans lose this game despite outgaining Minnesota by about 160 yards. The final two minutes of this game are worth watching. Northwestern QB Aidan Chiles?? Alessio had a better EPA than Chiles any other game this season. USC 21, Nebraska 17 If you like offense, don't look at this game. We are suddenly having feelings about Wink Martindale. Dylan Raiola is done for the season and USC is able to grind out a win. Raiola's backup went 5/7 for 7 yards.  Illinois 35, Rutgers 13 A solid victory for Illinois, most of Rutgers' yards are when it was 35-6. Bert: "I put us as good as any 6-3 team out there. That doesn't mean anything." Bowl eligible in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2011. Illinois is the new Wisconsin.  MUSIC:

• "On & On"—The Marcus King Band
• "Husbands"—Geese
• "Don't Forget That I Love you"—Pale Jay
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra 

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklar Brothers, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: Grand Gesture

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts at the top

Injured Mockobee, injured, turnover-prone starting QB in a battle with Arkansas transfer. OL gets worse from left to right. Receivers drop more than ours. Tight end was one dude who's hurt and three weirdos. They move the ball with College Crappe: screens, GT Counters, lots of RPOs, and the occasional baller play by Ryan Browne. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WINK.

starts at 25:22

That secondary is rough and getting rougher. They have one good lineman, plus maybe a second in Breeon Ishmail. Linebackers came with Odom. Do the Nebraska thing where they give you lots of weird fronts, 3-3-5, 404 Tite, Mint, etc. so they confuse your reads. Going to be fits and starts, need to take advantage of the cracks without Haynes.

starts at 45:51

Defensive UFR things: Jimmy Rolder was a star for more reasons than you think. Jyaire Hill took away their main thing. Chiles looks broken, MSU OL look broken, they are down bad.

starts at 1:03:29

Open and soon to be open coaching jobs, person who has to approve, person we would choose. We ship LSU, PSU, Florida, Arkansas, VT, Wisconsin, UCLA, Stanford, MSU, Oregon State, and Oklahoma State, plus Seth has one more because we stole a coach from somewhere.

We featured Grand Gesture on this show back in 2017 and I rediscovered their album I downloaded (for free) from Bandcamp. Reader Ryan Dembinsky (class of 2000) is one of the guitar players in this NYC band that promises "Protean fjord jam rock." I'd actually characterize it as a great example of the more interesting stuff that came out at the end of the garage rock era (other examples: Apollo Sunshine, Starlight Mints) that I thought was better than the genre that birthed it. Ryan also used to write the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes blog back when MGoBlog was young (2006-2009) and sports blogging was a budding industry.

I'm not sure they're still together—the last show on their FB page was pre-pandemic—and even then they were all musicians on the side with full-time jobs. I wonder what would have happened if they took this professional though, because they're pretty good and got some buzz in the NYC music scene around 2017.

Songs:

• Straw in My Sock
• Computer Love
• 1,000 Yard Stare

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Things Discussed:

THE CRAIG ROSS HOUR

• Rudoph Verchow, most likely, I dunno. I wasn't there.
• Bredeson had a game—Sam explains what's going on with the blocking scheme. He's not reading on the fly; he's reading whether there's someone in the B gap, come get him!
• Run game cooking: MSU slanted into them but they had Bredeson to answer.
• Bryce: Concerned, not panicked. What's going on?
• RPOs are a comfort zone for him, but on 16 RPOs he only threw one and they were there for him.
• Coaches didn't have him prepared for nickel pressures.
• Gotta notice when the DBs are lined up over each other in the slot.

THE PART I WAS THERE FOR

• MSU was pretty bad. Aidan Chiles has regressed badly. Guards easy to push around or just get out of the way.
• Jimmy Rolder had a GAME, though some of those events were just MSU bad.
• Jyaire Hill played great, shut down Nick Marsh and that was the end of what MSU can do. He had the one failed chuck on a long throw late. Okay, –2, but didn't offset a great night.
• Young guys make mistakes. Good gameplan from Rossi against a true freshman QB, Bryce is going to have to learn to trust his pockets and see the rush.
• TJ Guy: back to TJ Dude. Important because Cam Brandt isn't playing well, Nate Marshall is Not Ready.
• DTs are fine. They rotate so much it's hard for anyone to get traction. Benny and Pierce are much better than the others, but they were able to run their defense in a way that everybody just had to hold up to doubles and let the LBs make plays. Payne is fine. Williams is fine and gets one big play a game. Pierce is hurt or else they could play him more—warrior.
• LBs if Rolder and Sullivan are out: Move Barham back? I guess you have to. Bowles didn't have a good game; the 2nd & 19 one of the things you need is for him to drop back in a "V".
• Purdue: Old USC OC, don't Wink out.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Bronco" -- Pigeon Pit
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:05

They watch games in Craig's garage but to be clear it's a very nice garage. This game means different things based on if you're from Michigan or not. This game is like "Jerry Springer: the Rivalry". Michigan went back to the 2023 "we can just run the ball and get away with a win" gameplan. 'Road Bryce' seems to be a real thing. Every time they show Jonathan Smith he looks like he doesn't want to be there. Should there be an ingrained hatred of Michigan if you're going to be the head coach at Michigan State? Bryce doesn't have a good game but both backs go for over 100 yards. Bryce looked great last week, what happened? Or is this just the case of a true freshman in a road environment again? Sprague and Guarnera had great games, El-Hadi maybe not so much? The pieces for the 2026 offensive line may already be in place. Let's talk about Semaj... We're mostly out on Semaj, do you bench him now for his own good? Jordan Marshall: runs through guys and runs through guys. The Crippen high snap was unfortunate. Can anyone play fullback better than Max Bredeson? 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 59:04

We've been down on Wink but this was a good game for the defense. You can't take much on this based on the performance of the opposition. Chiles was awful in a vacuum, Michigan was not forcing his problems. Hillman had a really good game, he's been given a lot of criticism but this was a chaotically good game. Jimmy Rolder was a little bit of everywhere, he's a playmaker now. Derrick Moore is pretty good, he should start! Everything around the defensive tackle position is fine but we're used to a defense designed around great defensive tackles. Defensive backs should have as equal right to the ball as wide receivers. 

Starts at 1:26:57

Takes hotter than the bacteria and/or virus that really got up in Brian's business this week. Glue the hat and pants on, Michigan State's not getting the trophy back. Some of us don't think that guy was off-sides... or was he? The hold on Crippen is not even remotely a hold. If that's a hold then we need to talk about Jaishawn Barham. Why are we accepting a fair catch on the 20?? We are out on J.B. Brown as special teams coordinator. Hollenbeck had a nice game at least. Semaj gets run over by Goodwin?! Should they have taken a shot in the endzone before the end of the half?  

Starts at 1:51:10 Rutgers 27, Purdue 24 The Purdue QB catches his own pass and spectacularly hands the game over to Rutgers in dramatic fashion. Rutgers gets yards, not points. Purdue wins a game they probably shouldn't have. This game kind of saved Rutgers' season, they could potentially compete with Penn State for bowl eligibility.  Nebraska 28, Northwestern 21 Northwestern outgains Nebraska and Dylan Raiola was un-inspiring. That said, Raiola was still the better QB. Northwestern always seems to find the worst QB in the portal. Nebraska seems to think they can solve their offensive line problems with the portal but they can't.  Indiana 56, UCLA 6 There was a pick-six a minute into the game and that's all she wrote. Last year Indiana was a fun story, this year THEY'RE SCARY.  Washington 42, Illinois 25 Road Washington is a thing. The worst roughing the passer call we've ever seen is in this game. Could Oregon be a play-in for a playoff spot for Washington??  Oregon 21, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin doesn't get shut out three games in a row! All things considered, the Wisconsin defense is playing their hearts out.  Iowa 41, Minnesota 3 Iowa had 274 total yards. How do you get 41 points on 274 total yards? It's Iowa. We need a Floyd of Rosedale pose on touchdowns in this game. Playoff Iowa??? No, that's silly.  MUSIC:

• "Chokkan Way"—Haku
• "My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis
• "Nausea"—Jeff Rosenstock
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Chirp

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts at the top.

What have they done to Aidan Chiles? He's dinky this year, and not very accurate as a dinker either. Be careful of his rushes. MSU fans are turning on their coaches already. Offensive line is a shambles of injury. Nick Marsh, enter the dang portal already friend. They're not even throwing to him deep. Sandbagging for this game? Please don't Wink out—they've been running a million screens.

starts at 20:26

Let Bryce cook, we say! A lot of cyans as yards are coming easily. They run both types of switch coverages—weird to see Dantonio's low safeties and press corners against a passing spread (it didn't work). Best thing to do is repeat last week's approach.

starts at 43:48

Waiting for Brian to tell us about Bryce and Frazier, but they looked pretty good. Drops were an issue, are an issue. Seth proposes a prospectin' name for Jordan Marshall. Defensively Washington contributed a lot to our scores, but credit Wink or the people who yelled at him for going back to the 2024 Ohio State gameplan. Long discussion on the rotations, especially at DL—Cam Brandt isn't Derrick Moore or a young Derrick Moore and it's unfair to be playing him as such. Also Jordan Young at the end of the 2nd half when you've got a 7-point lead.

starts at 1:15:54

Hockey is undefeated after their best game in years vs WMU, game 2 is tonight and will be intense. Hoops has their 2nd exhibition, hopefully with a frontcourt this time, and this one has all the makings of an elite matchup.

Chirp is a four-piece band that hops around genres. I don't they've opened for Vulfpeck but they're part of that same progressive rock/funk and jazz-fusion scene. Formed in 2015, Jay Frydenlund, Brian Long, Sam Naples, and Patrick Blommel have been playing concerts and festivals all around the region. I saw them with Joe Hertler (featured here before), and got a notification in my email this week that they'll be at the Pig at the end of November (11/28), so I figured it's a good time to bring them up. I have them on my work playlist, mostly for their covers, but the songs featured are all off their 2022 album.

Songs:

• "By the Book" (video)
• "Little Friend"
• "Fast Food Blues"      

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

OFFENSE

• Bryce Underwood had has best game yet. Throws down the middle of the field can beat ANYTHING.
• His RPO reads are on point. Chip is doing a great job with him.
• How do they keep finding these TEs?
• Michigan made a lot of young guy mistakes but also overcame them because they have kids who can step up.
• Max Bredeson for Heisman? PFF numbers on him don't capture what he does.
• The split stretch trap TD was a *READ* by Bredeson!!!
• Offensive philosophies: One school of thought (Lloyd, Harbaugh) is if you option you let the defense call the plays. Other school of thought (Chip, Malzahn) is take what they give you. Post-Gattis, M ran maybe three RPOs/season.
• Blake Frazier: Still not super strong but that agility is visible. Ryan Hayes as a RS Fr would have looked like this.

In the break: Sam Webb's football career, Craig praises Seth/Brian, Seth says there are MSU guys who would do this sort of thing (e.g. Chris Vannini) if they had the fanbase to support it. Michigan fans want to KNOW more than they want to believe.

DEFENSE

• USC gameplan vs the Washington gameplan.
• This was the Ohio State 2024 gameplan: play four against the run, 75% two-deep, lots of QQH, and invite the opponent to screw up.
• Will Howard, Demond Williams: these are college QBs. If you give them enough opportunities to make hard reads they'll screw up and throw it at a defender. This has gotta be hard for Wink because if you play this way against an NFL team you'll get shredded.
• Vanilla defense unlocked fast play from their linebackers.
• Yay Michigan went away from Bear fronts against 2 TEs on the field.
• This is hard for Wink, but he's not good at disguising fire blitzes, and believes he does. Got away with it at the Ravens because he had great man coverage defenders. He needs to use less of them to keep them effective. They still got taken advantage of on passing downs in this game.
• Edge defense: only one Barham went too high incident, which is VERY GOOD! Hutch would have games with 1 or 2 and I'd praise him to the heavens. Need to calibrate.
• M mixing more man into their coverages.
• Jordan Young out there at the end of the half—that kind of stuff has to stop. Young is young Rod Moore, but at this stage it's Rod against Washington in 2021 not Rod against OSU—Rod needed time to become the guy who could start against Ohio State.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Tight Game...On the Scoreboard
• Friday Night Beatdown
• Attempted Takeaways

• We Dig Into NHL Storylines and Team
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Western Michigan and William Whitelaw Revenge

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "People I Don't Like" -- UPSAHL
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:05

Pay no attention to the background noise from the drag show at Venue. This game was vanilla and we like that. Bryce Underwood had a fabulous day despite losing about 50 yards from drops. There seems to be a big difference between Road Bryce and Home Bryce. Michigan didn't take many deep shots because the short stuff was working great and Washington has tall corners. The remaining road games shouldn't be nearly as threatening as the previous three. The game is over but they have a designed run for Bryce? Jordan Marshall isn't Justice Haynes but he gets a lot of yards after contact. He's still working on re-gapping but overall an excellent first start for him. Jasper Parker looked fine. Under Harbaugh not much changed between offensive coordinators, but with Chip Lindsey a lot has changed already. He was dealing in the first touchdown drive. When's the last time we came out of a game thinking "oh wow they nuked the defensive coordinator?" How do we feel about going for it on 4th down and passing it to Mr. Dropsies? Running it up the middle is probably a 70% conversion, throwing it to Semaj is also a 70% conversion but for different reasons. Evan Link looks to be done for the year. Bryce's first scramble was Frazier getting knocked backwards, he seems fine but doesn't quite have the oomf that Evan Link does. Zack Marshall had a great game, what happened to the starting tight ends? Overall the offensive line was fine. 

Starts at 34:40

The defense only gave up seven points but everyone is still a little mad. Michigan runs a pretty vanilla defense and it works nicely because college quarterbacks are going to make mistakes. Oden did intercept the ball but uhh... it was not because of his performance. Washington shot themselves in the foot but also Jaishawn Barham was much more responsible. Wink is not forgiven but it was nice that this game plan was simplified and it was fine. A lot of defensive tackle rotation but not everybody is a play maker. Is Lou Esposito the one rotating the tackles so much? Maybe part of the chaos on defense is you don't get used to playing next to the same guy every snap. This will not be a -33 RPS day. Jyaire Hill is not getting targeted very much. 

Starts at 58:19

Takes hotter than the bangin' drag show going on during the recording of this podcast. Brian apologizes once again for changing "AHHH YOU PUT IT THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS" and disrupting the cosmic balance. Zvada misses another field goal but gets the game sealer. Punting was a 35 yarder and then a rocket. No major complains about Semaj on punt returns except that he hit the spin button at the wrong time. The 4th and 1 drop to Semaj was unfortunate. What about the 4th and 2 on the 6? The whistle blew too early. Max Bredeson's holding call is the worst holding call since that Northwestern holding call. Stadium vibe: some people could actually use their phones! It should not take nine minutes to get a $9 coke, the athletic department doesn't pay close attention to the small things. Apparently concession people at Yost don't get paid but the athletic department can finally install cell phone towers at Michigan Stadium after 11 years under Warde. 

Starts at 1:26:57 Iowa 25, Penn State 24 The nicest thing you can say about Penn State is that a lot of big programs are in collapse. Drew Allar's career is over, Ethan Grunkemeyer throws for 93 yards and throws two interceptions. Iowa threw for 68 yards but ran for 245 yards, Iowa should just run the triple option!  UCLA 20, Maryland 17 You gotta respect Maryland's commitment to one Army drive and then not doing a thing after. UCLA looked like the better team all game. This was a Big Ten [wild wild] West game. This is Maryland's third straight heartbreaking loss, they can't finish games with a freshman QB. There's still a path to a bowl.  Indiana 38, Michigan State 13 Shout out to everyone who listened to this on Spartan Radio. Indiana's offense was extremely efficient. Fernando Mendoza was 24/28 for 332 yards and four touchdowns. Indiana football fans were mad that they weren't winning by more. Did Indiana give up enough passing yards to be concerned with playoff implications for the Hoosiers? Northwestern 19, Purdue 0 Northwestern gets one 76 yard scoring drive and that's about all the scoring in this game. Don't let the score fool you into thinking that Northwestern has figured something out.  Notre Dame 34, USC 24 USC takes a 3rd quarter lead followed by Notre Dame getting a kickoff return. Then USC just falls apart in the 4th quarter. This was frustrating to watch as a Michigan fan.  Ohio State 34, Wisconsin 0 134 total yards for Wisconsin and that's generous. Oh god they play Oregon next weekend. Minnesota 24, Nebraska  Dylan Raiola is sacked nine times, that's too many times. Nebraska had just entered the top 25 and has now exited the top 25. A left tackle was ejected for targeting! Shout out to Minnesota fans for really filling the stadium on a Friday night.  Oregon 56, Rutgers 10 14 different Oregon players went for at least 10 yards on a play. Oregon was very upset about their Indiana game. Somehow there wasn't a rutger. Oregon had 233 breakaway yards, Rutgers had 202 total yards.  MUSIC:

• "Brand New Second Hand"—Peter Tosh
• "It's Not Easy"—Ofege
• "Plain as Your Eyes Can See"—Jim Sullivan
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Rawhide

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts at noon, we hope

Massive respect for their skill positions, not so much their offensive line, which means this game will mostly be a test of whether Wink learned anything from last week, or cares to now that he's put his football career on life support.

starts around 12:15 PM

Not the offense. D'Anton Lynn is on the Ravens tree but he's not having the same success, mostly because they can't seem to get the defensive line up to size. Devan Thompkins is 290, Jide Abasiri is 295. Edges were highly ranked (Anthony Lucas was a pre-Elston Michigan target) but sophomore Kameryn Crawford isn't panning out like a top-100 is supposed to. They added Portal #25 Keeshawn Silver from Kentucky and a 5-star freshman, but they haven't changed that math, and are getting pushed around. We do still like Kamari Ramsey, who came with Lynn from UCLA and has been playing nickel this year. Cornerbacks are tall.

starts around 12:30 PM

Hockey is off to a hot start after a two-game road sweep of Providence, though having to come back against Robert Morris last night put the first little damper on it. Basketball starts tonight with an exhibition against Cincinnati at Crisler that will be our first look at the transfers. Question #1 is how physical will they be up front, because Cincy has a brawler. Will they try three bigs?

starts around 1:00 PM

I had three RPS-3s, two for screens and one for the Power after the 3rd & 26 and TD, which were both Power, when Wink ran an exotic that had no chance against Power. If they can cut out half of their shit and get their best players (read: seniors like TJ Guy) on the field, they should be able to get righted.

Offensively it was a better performance than 13 points. There weren't that many drives, and Bryce struggled. His passes might be flat because he's getting sped up (Gardner has been in that position). Marshall missed two big cuts that Haynes makes. OL was okay; El-Hadi's return wasn't great, there were some mistakes from Guarnera, but USC's defense didn't ask Sprague to do too much and he did well, and Link had MAs but wasn't straight-up beat. Brian doesn't blame Bryce for the interception—once the WR wins inside he's going to win the route—but the throw to Marsh could have put him in the endzone if Bryce is feeling confident in his throw. Maybe give him some max pro to

Last May someone was carrying a tom into Ziggy's with a bumper sticker that read if "If you don't like Motörhead Fuck you" with American and British flags on it. My one friend snapped a photo and sent it to our group for commentary from the guy who founded (and sold) an MGoBlog-sized site about metal music. This thread of college roommates/bandmates/best friends is like 10% Michigan sports, 20% Xennial parent shit, and 70% music shit, meaning music prompts can result in 42-message threads that the college football guy in the middle of writing a college football preview magazine might not get to until he's trying to clear unread notifications many months later.

This is how I found I had missed the group discovering a new genre/EP called Michigan Fuzz Punk by Rawhide, a two-piece (Ellen Cope and Jacob Bloom) Michigan band formerly known as Girl Fight. What I know about them comes from this column. The EP is pay what you may ($13.10 is fair). Anyway this is me talking about Michigan Fuzz Punk, which is both an excellent description of the genre and the EP's title. I am a total tourist in this genre so I'll refrain from talking about it like I know shit about shit, except I'm super intrigued to see what this is actually like live since the recordings only hint at it. I'll say the song Reach Me kicks and it's hilarious that "Greta is a Punk" and "Paige's Song" are the same song.

Songs:

• "Stone Cold"
• "Reach Me"
• "Clocked In"       

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• RIP Zia Combs.
• Wink shit. Brian and I are done.
• Is it coaching or players? I say coaching, because there's no point in running the stuff, even if it's good stuff, if you don't have the coaching points down, and the #1 coaching points are not in.
• They're going to have to simplify, stick to some basics until they can run all of this stuff.
• Hillman: Unplayable at this bust rate, but too good of a player to not coach the bust rate out of him.
• Players going off-script? If it's seniors you gotta ask why they think they have to.
• Wink Shit: Never drops a DT into a screen. Plays three DTs. Expected long passing and got short. Had no way to defend power. It was all so easy; the only thing that stopped USC was a bad call and 2 redzone turnovers. Worst coaching performance since Rich Rod made Greg Robinson go 3-3-5 vs Purdue in 2009.
• Offense is young but you can see what they'll look like post-mistakes.
• Found a WR2 in Marsh, might want to try some max-pro to get BU confident.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Back and Forth Opening Period
• Second Period Drubbing
• Shutdown Third Period

• Special Teams and Breakaways
• Series Takeaways. Feeling Pretty Good?
• Hockey Jaime Segement
• We Want Mo' Bobby 

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Providence" -- Poor Man's Poison
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

Seth reads off an ominous message from Brian from earlier last week. USC's success rate was typical of a good offense against a MAC team. This was the dumbest game plan we've ever seen a Michigan defensive coordinator execute. Wink Martindale coaches like he looks down on college and Brian is officially done with him. Is Wink just Charlie Weis?? What happened between The Meeting from last year and this year? Mike McDonald made a lot of the same mistakes in his first four games but he was able to adjust to what was around him, Wink can't change. Would things be better if they fired Wink Martindale and just made Rod Moore the defensive coordinator? His answer to the question "are you spilling or setting the edge" was "it depends on the playcall" which raises a red flag. How much actual player development is being done? They're playing their subs in the first quarter, Brandt had more snaps than Derrick Moore. USC was running a lot of really easy stuff but they may legitimately be one of the best offenses in the country. Why are they subbing so much against such a good offense? His buyout is head coach money to be one of the worst defensive coordinators in the Big Ten. It's not just younger guys making mistakes, it's older guys, too. At some point you gotta think "maybe this is a tunnel screen?" USC had a 66% standard downs success rate. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 40:07

There was a limited number of drives in part because USC ran the clock a lot. Bryce Underwood just wasn't quite up for it in this one. His deep passes were too flat but he had some good moments too. Denard talked about how in big games we was so amped that he couldn't hit his targets, maybe Bryce is still a little nervous in big games. USC's nickel is nicknamed "the angry giraffe" because he's so tall. Andrew Marsh is getting better rapidly and is becoming the next best option #2, maybe that's why the tight ends got fewer targets. The pieces of a solid offense are there, they're still developing. The tackles weren't getting whipped consistently. Despite the issues, Bryce is developing as expected for a freshman, he has a lot of added pressure when the defense can't stop the opposing offense. Based on limited snaps of Jadyn Davis, maybe you can't run Bryce as much to risk injury. El-Hadi was back and looked fine. 

Starts at 1:04:56

Takes hotter than the eternal flame in the Los Angeles Coliseum (which does get put out at the conclusion of the game). The game might've been going a bit fast which caused the false starts. The OPI was a bad call. Michigan drew a holding call!! A lot of extracurriculars went uncalled. Hollenbeck's punting started promising but eventually resulted in a 28 yarder. Do you punt or try for a 60 yard field goal? That two point conversion is apparently the thing you do now? The USC cheerleaders were on the field when Michigan was running a play! 

Starts at 128:41 NOTE: This was recorded just before James Franklin was fired. Indiana 30, Oregon 20 This was a defensive masterclass from Indiana. This is how 2023 Michigan would've beaten Oregon. How the hell does Indiana have one of the best defenses in America?? This was really the first game all year where Dante Moore was under pressure and didn't seem to know what to do. Indiana has signs of... a championship winning team?! Penn State 21, Northwestern 22 Drew Allar is out for the season. This wasn't a fluke, Northwestern just outperformed Penn State. Linebacker U has completely fallen apart and Jim Knowles doesn't seem to know how to be aggressive with this roster. Will... Penn State win a Big Ten game?? James Franklin was fired immediately after this recording so there's still speculation on what to do with this situation. The situation at Penn State just seems toxic all around.  UCLA 38, Michigan State 13 Michigan State scores on their first drive and then that's all, folks. October UCLA is the opposite of October Maryland. Michigan State can't move on from John Smith for stability reasons... can they? What do the Spartans do well? What Big Ten teams would swap their QB with Aidan Chiles? Nebraska 34, Maryland 31 Nebraska had control of this game down-to-down but Dylan Raiola threw three interceptions. October Maryland can't get out of their way again. Raiola isn't quite there yet but has a shot at it next year.  Ohio State 34, Illinois 16 Ohio State was never really threatened. Illinois outgains Ohio State 295 to 275 but three of Ohio State's first four drives started in Illinois territory.  Iowa 37, Wisconsin 0 Sim to basketball season. This wasn't even an Iowa offensive explosion, Wisconsin threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. You can't fire Fickell but you also can't afford not to? Washington 38, Rutgers 19 A fun first half but Washington blows the doors open in the second half. Total yards were 590 to 493. Rutgers is 0-3 in the Big Ten but had a halftime lead in each of those games.  Purdue 20, Minnesota 27 Minnesota is outrushed 253 to 30 rushing yards but Purdue throws three interceptions and loses a fumble. If you rewatch this game, we will have to call 911. MUSIC:

• "Au Pays do Cocaine"—Geese
• "See You Again"—Tyler the Creator
• "Havin' or Not"—LaRussell and Lil Jon
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Syd Burnham

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts at the top

Maiva is getting 12 YPA vs blitzes, so maybe don't Wink so much in this game. They're using a lot more 12 personnel and splitbacks this year as well so it's not just your standard Lincoln Riley spread. It's still Lincoln Riley though, and it's been murder on a mostly bad offense. A big reason is the All-American slot/flanker Makai Lemon. There aren't as many outside guys as last year but they kept their two favorites; Ja'Kobi Lane is back and huge, but freshman Tanook Hines is getting most of the snaps at the other side. You do have to be wary of tight end Lake McRee and JUCO RB Waymond Jordan. OL might be better than they were against Illinois, when they had some significant injuries; we expect LT Elijah Paige to be back but not center Killian O'Connor, so they'll have to play 7th year senior J'Onre Reed.

starts at 19:15

Not the offense. D'Anton Lynn is on the Ravens tree but he's not having the same success, mostly because they can't seem to get the defensive line up to size. Devan Thompkins is 290, Jide Abasiri is 295. Edges were highly ranked (Anthony Lucas was a pre-Elston Michigan target) but sophomore Kameryn Crawford isn't panning out like a top-100 is supposed to. They added Portal #25 Keeshawn Silver from Kentucky and a 5-star freshman, but they haven't changed that math, and are getting pushed around. We do still like Kamari Ramsey, who came with Lynn from UCLA and has been playing nickel this year. Cornerbacks are tall.

starts at 36:56

Underwood is coming along, the RBs are elite, and Andrew Marsh is happening. Still have McCulley the #1 with a bullet, and it's nice to see they're giving him leapy chances now. Not sure where PFF (and Sam apparently) are getting the bad pass protection grades for the tackles, because we thought they were fine. The young OL have mistakes but they fix them, and they all have the talent.

Fire blitzes were the order of the day. Weird seeing this defense spill but that's what they do sometimes I guess. Rod Moore's return was a bigger deal than you think. Seth's not as mad at Wink as you think. 

starts at 52:45

There are some pretty big games this weekend (and that's more interesting than hockey vs Mercyhurst) so we previewed each of them.

• Indiana at Oregon: "…is a top-ten matchup" means Okay grandpa let's get you back to a home. Oregon by 7. If IU's OL is legit they can win and if they can beat Oregon there's no ceiling on this team. I can't believe in Indiana!
• Ohio State at Illinois: They'll lean.
• UCLA at Michigan State: What's funnier: MSU losing at home to UCLA or UCLA immediately losing by like 60 after beating Penn State? MSU fans are already saying Jonathan Smith doesn't have That Dawg in him. He seems like a normal human being, not an angry little dwarf.
• Nebraska at Maryland: Interesting game with what happened with Maryland last week. They are throwing many screens.
• Rutgers at Washington: Expect a high-scoring game. Would like this game on the opposite coast but Rutgers's offense is hit or miss and three time zones suggests miss.
• Northwestern at Penn State: PSU fans are already salty after the Eagles and Gavin McKenna/PSU hockey just lost to Clarkston. If you have one punt there could be a riot; OTOH Penn State fans respect Northwestern's big win over a tough UCLA team.
• Iowa at Wisconsin: euugh. Special teams malfeasance by Wisconsin will ruin them.
• Purdue at Minnesota: Vaguely watchable?

Okay reader who keeps asking: this is when I'll do Syd Burnham (now Osten; she got married this summer, but kept the performing name). Syd is an indie rock musician and graphic designer from Detroit who mixes a bunch of genres (jazz, singer-songwriter, etc.) to come up with a unique sound. She made an impact with her debut EP "The Yellow Album," at the age of 16, followed by her album "Timeline" at 19. She has since released hit singles like "Summertime," "4 A Grl," "Milky," and "By Then" but her live performances are what carved out a dedicated audience in the Detroit music scene. Syd goes up there with just a guitar and her voice but has a magnetic stage presence who incorporates her modern art into the music, and incorporates local themes into the artwork. Links: IG, YT, FB, Spotify.

Songs:

• "A GRL"
• "Best Friend"
• "By Then"       

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Happy Yankees Elimination Day to all who celebrate, and Guardians Elimination Week to the celebrants.
• What do we talk about when we're off-air? K-Pop.
• Pass protection vs Wisconsin: Michigan thought they could do it—Brian and Sam/PFF disagree whether there were pass pro issues from the tackles. There were stunt issues on the young guards, but 15% pressure rate is fine, thought for the most part they handled the DEs pretty well.
• Offensive design was great. Stick and move: Wisconsin was ready to defend stretch and Michigan hit them with a stretch beater for a that big early gain. We like that they set up explosives because Haynes can pay them off.
• Michigan will also test man coverage with back shoulder fades, something they refused to do under Harbaugh. Right thing to do with McCulley, and you got one from Marsh.
• Things holding them back are youth: Bryce can't check out of a call like he will when he's not a true freshman, Efobi (eff-Oh-bee) and Sprague have mistakes but can hack it physically. Really impressed with Guarnera (g'wahr-NAYR-ah).
• Haynes for Heisman or Bredeson? Bredeson holding call was garbage. Michigan won't get a holding call this year; it's a problem across college football.
• Defense: I'm not mad. Fire blitzes were the way to attack the power run game and wound up getting a 2023 game: 1 TD drive, 1 FG drive and a whole lot of nothing. They gave up some chunks when they didn't get a guy covering where they blitzed from. Don't do that against USC—Maiva has 12 yards/dropback when blitzed.
• USC: They run our system but they don't have the DL to play how Michigan does. Offense is #1 to SP+ but only defense they've faced is Illinois. Think Michigan can push them around on offense, need to get to the QB with four on defense. Illinois ran the football.
• Are they playing to spill? Sometimes—it depends on the call. Barham isn't holding the edge, but sometimes maybe he's not supposed to. Maybe play spill? You've got speed at LB for it.
• Want to see less rotation on the DL. Derrick Moore should not be getting the same number of snaps as Cam Brandt; he should be on the field 67% to 75% of the time. Don't want to see Brandt over Guy against USC.
• Also a big drop between Benny/Pierce and the rest of the DTs. They will get their gaps, but they won't get 2 gaps every play.
• Rod Moore—not just the big plays (killed the screen and the reverse). He created the interception. He got guys lined up. It was like 2023.
• Hillman could play less recklessly, but he's still valuable. Brandyn Hillman is a dangerous safety.
• Jayden Sanders is a revelation. Doesn't make the same mistake twice, has the mind for Rod Moore stuff.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• They score a lot of goals.
• They take longer to score a lot of goals.
• Some maybe Takeaways?

• How did M's new Non-con Teams Do?
• The League Scores
• In-Depth Big Ten Preview
• What Does It All Mean?

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "My Way" -- SIAMES
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

Are Michigan fans turning beet red or was it just hot? This game looks better on rewatch and followed the preview fairly closely. Bryce Underwood took a leap forward in this game, he has the occasional accuracy issue and isn't testing the middle of the field, but he's starting to hit guys downfield. Andrew Marsh and Donaven McCulley also took a huge lea. This is encouraging considering Goodwin was barely targeted, Semaj has been having catching issues, and Frederick Moore is off the team. You can rotate most positions but not the wide receivers. Russel Bellamy has been getting unfairly judged for the receivers. Wisconsin has a very good rush defense and Michigan put up pretty good numbers. Underwood needs to get the ball out a little quicker. Sprague will grade out negatively but he generally does it well when he knows the right assignment. The offensive line is young, they need some time to get better. Lindsey plays off the screen game really well. Has Michigan gotten a holding call all year on defense?

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 39:33

10 points from the opposition but three came from a sad field goal. They barely got to 200 yards of offense until "kill the clock mode". Rod Moore being back instantly makes this defense much better. Don't rotate him and just keep him on the field all game? Zeke Berry is back from injury, he missed a tackle but was otherwise fine. This defense seems like they miss a lot of tackles but we're comparing it to the best defense in recent school history. Jimmy Rolder was in his element, one time he almost picked up a fullback and threw him. Michigan goes cover zero in a situation that makes no sense. Everyone in the stands keeps turning towards Seth when this happens. Brandyn Hillman is reckless which is helpful sometimes, sometimes it hurts you. Please don't be weird against USC.

Starts at 1:05:20

Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium this Saturday. Michigan missed a 27 yard field goal, was it the hold? They did (just barely) block a punt and almost blocked a second one. Hollenbeck was blasting them in this game. What is up with Semaj's punt returns? Is he being told not to take any chances? Should you run a QB sneak on 4th and inches near your own red zone? Luke Fickell is Brady Hoke. They weren't trying to win the game in the 4th quarter, you can't have a six minute field goal drive in this situation. Seth is about to start charting an umpire's spatial awareness.

Starts at 1:34:02 UCLA 42, Penn State 37 UCLA has been awful all season but they looked like the #7 team in the country in Pasadena. James Franklin partially blamed the travel. Coming into this weekend, UCLA never led in any of their four games. In this game they never trailed. Tim Skipper has as many wins over top 10 teams as James Franklin. Penn State was a playoff team but now they have to beat Ohio State to have a chance, Was this the biggest Big Ten upset ever?  Nebraska 38, Michigan State 27 In most weeks this would be the funniest game of the week. Michigan State ran for 2.3 YPC and Chiles threw two interception into Nebraska chests. Their backup looked pretty good so is there a QB controversy?  Washington 24, Maryland 20 Maryland took a 20-0 lead but road Washington dominated October Maryland. Washington is still without their best defensive end, linebacker, and defensive back. Mike Locksley is 0-10 coming out of bye weeks.  Illinois 43, Purdue 27 The Purdue offense is actually functional. Each QB threw for over 300 yards.  Northwestern 42, ULM 7 One day we'll have something to say about Northwestern, but not today. Ohio State 42, Minnesota 3 They let Julian Sayin cook. MUSIC:

• "Cobra"—Geese
• "God's Country"—Thomas Dollbaum
• "How To Kill Houseplants"—Spacey Jane
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Marcus: The Apex Predator

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts around noon.

Hiring Phil Longo was one of those WTF decisions that destroyed what remained of Wisconsin's identity. Without one they're just a Big Ten team, even if they did hire Jeff Grives to run the old Wisconsin offense. Billy Edwards is hurt—one drive against Maryland showed he couldn't go—so they're playing Danny O'Neil, the SDSU transfer who's basically Nick Sheridan. OL is a mess, with Riley Mahlman coming in under expectations, Ryan Cory hurt, and RS freshmen starting at three positions. Not impressed with their skill position players either. Need to get pressure with four—blitzing them just allows them to dink it.

starts around 12:15

Mike Tressel was the LBs coach under Dantonio and runs something akin to Dantonio Quarters, though his guys can't run it well. They do have a decent front four, with two good DTs protected by heavy LBs Christian Alliegro and Tackett Curtis (not good). But those guys can't cover, and you can run by Matthew Jung, the SS who adds himself to the run, and their corners are just guys. Want to see Bryce rip these guys apart.

starts around 12:35

The Sklar Brothers are hosting the Letterwinners homecoming event tonight and doing two shows at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase tomorrow night, where you can come up afterwards and give your Hot Takes. We just shoot the shit on Ann Arbor and talk about what comedians get offered to sell out to the Saudis.

starts around 12:50

They have plenty of blueliners—perhaps too many—but not enough forwards. Got more of a mix in the top lines in age, but they're also a lot shorter. Plenty of centers, need TJ Hughes and Michael Hage to continue scoring at a high pace while they bring along some freshmen. Expect Cole McKinney to center a scoring line immediately. One of them (Hughes or Hage) gets Horcoff on the wing after half a young season with him last year. He's one of the best passers and we expect his line to be the top scoring one. Defensively they have depth! And a top four! But there's going be a lot of questions about playing time for the six guys vying to be the third pairing, including a senior captain, two guys who returned that didn't have to, and two freshmen who came to play. As for the backstop, they've got a draft pick freshman again, but he's not Portillo-sized.

The last time we featured reader Kevin Watts's postcore band on this show was right before the last time Wisconsin played before fans at Michigan Stadium. Shea Patterson kept on an arc read deep in Michigan territory to break the game open, and Michigan played Jump Around in the 4th quarter. It's been seven years, but Marcus has a new EP for us.

Kevin formed Marcus: the Apex Predator in 2015 with his former drummer from Float Here Forever, Nick Marko. For FHF fans, this is like when Jonah started One Line Drawing to keep making Far songs, except Nick Marko is a drummer whereas Jonah's percussionist was an R2D2 unit.

Marcus is a cat.

Songs:

• "Lo-Fi"   
• "The First Summer"   
• "Newborn Fossil   

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Wisconsin preview: Edwards is injured, you can't snap your fingers and be a Wisconsin offense again.
• Penn State-Oregon: Drew Allar is Drew Allar.
• OSU-Washington: What happens when OSU has a better OL.
• Basketball: Program believes this team has F4 potential.
• Dusty appreciates the physicality of the Big Ten now: He's having the managers whack the kids with sticks.
• Spent the offseason getting rebounding and creation, guys around him should make any missed shot a good play.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• In Depth on Who's Coming Back
• Sprinkle In Some CHLers and a Transfer
• Attempted Guesses at Lines

• How Can They Play This Many Defensemen? Can One Be a Forward?
• Goalie Import
• Ideal Non-Con Schedule?
• What Are We Expecting?

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Handlebars" -- Flobots
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hours and 26 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

Out: Tre Donaldson, In: Elliot Cadeau, who is a much better creator, and that's what this team needs. Cadeau and the general UNC'ness of North Carolina are hard to separate but he was a five-star who plays hot and should benefit from not having to fight for usage with RJ Davis. Defensively his size puts a cap on what he can do but he gets after it: more Xavier Simpson than Eli Brooks.

LJ Cason is the backup point, we guess, though he may defer to Gayle as the on-ball player in those sets just because Cason is more of an off-ball threat than Roddy. Cason was a three-star because he was coming in unready, but could take that huge jump. This year is the freshman Jordan Poole year, not the sophomore Jordan Poole year, IE frustratingly forgivable.

Gayle isn't going to shoot 9% in the Big Ten again, but he's what he is at this point: a guy who can get to the rim and create fouls/hit his free throws. We kinda want him coming off the bench since he can fill in for a lot of what any given starter leaves, but isn't a great fit with the other projected starting four.

The other wild card is their new five-star. Trey McKenney lost 20 pounds in the offseason so he might not as much of a burly 2/3 as he seemed at OLSM. He's still Gayle at this point in his career, though with some big point upside. Not a one-and-done but should be ready by Tournament time.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 32:15

Starting at the three again will be Nimari Burnett, who is Nimari: a usage soak who is there to end good possessions not start them. He began to show a bit of creation late last season but that only got him from 90% points assisted to 84%. He is very good at what he does, and unlikely to do more. His backups are extra guards, and Winters Grady, who should be Just a Shooter at this stage, and more down the road. Oscar Goodman arrived midseason last year, but he's supposed to need another year of development. Patrick Liburd is the kind of guy we wish was 2 years older right now.

At the four is Yaxel Lendeborg, the #1 player in the portal, who is going to be a cross between Danny Wolf and Johni Broome, though not better than either of them. He is very strong and impossible to stop once he has you off your feet, but he's coming from an offense where he had to be the alpha creator every play and he's better as the second option. Can he guard up to three? Probably in the Big Ten; there was some distance at the Combine between him and Wolf in the agility drills, but Yaxel came out like Johni: agile enough to be among the who can play the four in the NBA.

Backup to Yax is Will Tschetter, the rarest bird in college basketball these days as a five-year player who stuck around despite the likelihood of less playing time than last year. They were working on making him a shooter on the move. He has to be hidden away defensively, but this lineup has plenty of defenders to do that.

Frontcourt is two guys instead of 1.5 now. We are obsessed with the upside of Aday Mara, who is 7'3" with impossible length. He would have had the highest block rate in the country by some distance if he played enough to qualify; he didn't because he got sick (Mono?) but when he returned they had him playing 21 mpg and UCLA got much, much better. Then he got benched. Sometimes he plays soft—was that a sick thing, a Cronin thing? He's also got a soft touch and a good feel for passing. May be as good as Yaxel if he hits his ceiling. Mara's platoonmate, and the probable "starter," is Morez Johnson from Illinois, a crazy rebounder with great ups and shot-blocking ability. Offensively he's a finisher. Defensively there's some hope he can be switchable. Going to make it very hard to go inside and give Michigan an edge from the five that they haven't had since...?

Starts at 1:11:34

Can they play the bigs together? Matt D says the NBA is going back to three forwards, and Michigan's best attribute is they're Old North Carolina, where they're just going to out-size everybody. That's doable if they can get Mara to be the player we think he could be, since he can create and so can Yaxel, and you can get away with blow-bys when you have a guy like Mara who blocks shots without leaving the floor. Speaking of floor, this team at worst looks like a four-seed, with considerable upside if a) Mara can play more and maintain his numbers, b) Cadeau cuts down on turnovers, c) Gayle finds his shooting, d) Cason blows up, or e) McKenney blows up. Think they can cut down on turnovers from last year because Wolf just had a bunch that were unforced, and because instead of forcing everything to the rim they can shoot bad twos and rebound them. They also just have more room to pass to.

Starts at 2:02:19 Oregon 30, Penn State 24 Penn State could do nothing on offense until the 4th Q when they had went on an Oregon-is-exhausted march, then hit a great PA shot. The INT that ended it was that pyramid formation Lanning loves. Frames punted from the plus-36. 

Ohio State 24, Washington 6 Went about how you might expect a team whose OL/DL are their issues would go against OSU, IE they got six points out of three red zone trips and then it was 17-6 in the 4th Q and they had to go for it on 4th down. OSU did a great job containing the QB run.

Indiana 20, Iowa 15 I know that touchdown; that's the Anthony Carter play!  Iowa had chances to win this but lost their QB near the end and also went Cover Zero one too many times. 

USC 32, Illinois 34 This felt like two good teams going at it, though USC was short on guys in the secondary and played bend-don't-break until they either broke or Illinois pulled out a Philly Special. Coulda been a blowout but Illinois fumbled in the endzone twice.

Minnesota 31, Rutgers 28 Rutgers hits their program high when they have to play a Big Ten West schedule. Good solid quarterbacking until Athan Kaliakmanis had to face pressure, which is like Pedro Serrano trying to hit a curve.

Northwestern 17, UCLA 14 Down 17-0 to Northwestern was probably UCLA's best shot at winning a Big Ten game this year.

MUSIC:

• "Surefire"—Wilderado   
• "See You Again"—Tyler the Creator
• "I Believe She's Lying"—Jon Brion
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed:

• Nebraska: Hero is Greg Crippen, stretch blocker extraordinaire. M is a stretch team, which emphasizes your center. Playing two backup guards but they were good too (mostly—2 errors for Guarnera, 3 for Efobi). Link…sometimes he just doesn't know what he's doing, still leagues better than last year.
• When El-Hadi comes back who plays?
• Bryce Talk: Getting him rolling out, getting him comfortable, defenses are screen-hunting.
• Lindsey: Great gameplan, was calling it well, got Michigan a lot of Ws.
• Defense: Seeing young guys step up. Trey Pierce is a star in Run D, ended the first drive himself, was a big part of M's stretch defense. Cole Sullivan is a wow player who still makes mistakes but is going to be crazy good. Jayden Sanders: maybe he's just a starting cornerback. Worthy of trust out there.
• Gotta talk to Wink: It's not just the big things; what he was doing on the Hail Mary was far too cute. There were 14 RPS-1s in the charting, which means he was trying to be the playcaller who won the game. It shouldn't be about the playcaller.
• Ohio State at Washington: UW has a shot because they have those great skill position players. Jonah Coleman is the best RB in the Big Ten, Boston is the 2nd best WR in the country, and teams struggle going out west to that slippery field. But OSU tends to win these games, and they're a more complete team, even if they're not the same offense they've been, because UW has worse lines.
• Oregon-Penn State: Franklin will find a way to lose, PSU's season has holes that the scores don't tell.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

Is yogurt, honey, and granola a snack? Dave Nastersnacks will give us the answer. Oklahoma was a 24-13 loss but it felt worst than that, this was 30-27 win but it felt better than that (but also worse!). The domination on both lines was more notable than some of the silly, bad things that happened. Between Oklahoma and Nebraska, Michigan hasn’t had a complete touchdown drive (but this game had an 8 minute drive to go up by 10). Caveats aside, we’re on the verge of saying Greg Crippen is good after he blocked three guys on one play. Running stretch is hard and they’re running it quite well. McCulley had a great game but was to blame on Semaj’s throw being incomplete. Zero drops otherwise and ran guys over. Everyone else? Not so great. Gotta catch the ball on a slant, get used to passes from Underwood. Should they throw it to Peyton O’Leary? The running backs sure toughened up in this one. Max Bredeson blocks everyone like they’re Caleb Downs in the Rose Bowl. Not many Bryce critiques. Catch the ball. Guarnera is just not making mistakes. What’s the next good defensive line that Michigan will play, Ohio State? Michigan consistently got a play in, saw the look of the defense, and got a new play in. 

Starts at 46:58

Time for a Wink Martindale argument? He doesn’t need to do anything fancy. Just run the Iowa defense, you’re not going up against an NFL offense. Brandyn Hillman is being asked to do things outside of his base job. 27 points, seven are on Biff, seven are on Hillman taunting, three are on Mangham missing a sack. Otherwise it was pretty good? Raiola was getting sacked every other play. Too many safeties missing sacks. Complaining aside, they got to the quarterback a lot and tackled well. Sanders has been playing a lot and there haven’t really been any negative feelings about him. Wink would be a better poker player than Mike Debord but not as good as Jesse Minter. This game felt like Trey Pierce arrived. Cole Sullivan has absolutely emerged, he’s little bit of everywhere and has freaky long arms. Defensive backs played well. The Shamari Earls PI was a bit weak. Brandyn Hillman needs to grow up, that was the most obvious personal foul in a minute. Brian usually defends players celebrating and even he says that’s an obvious foul. Was it a targeting call at the end of the game? Let’s talk about the Hail Mary. Why was TJ Guy dropping? Why was there a spy? 

Starts at 1:25:17

Takes hotter than a Wisconsin fan looking at whatever the shit that was on Saturday. If you’re Nebraska, would you go for it on 4th and 2 on the opening drive? Should Michigan have called timeout at the end of the first half? Maybe Sherrone could make a better call here but we can’t know that. Zvada hit a 56 yarder and a chip shot to seal it, yay. Punting was okay, how do you recruit punters? What’s with Semaj at punt returns? Punt returning has been a problem for a couple years now. Kendrick Bell got the onside! Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler are washed. The turf was a little slippy? 

Starts at 1:51:48 Indiana 63, Illinois 10 This is the most points a top 10 team has been beaten by. This looks like Michigan’s boxscore against Central. Cignetti is vindicated. How much is this Indiana being legit and Illinois never being top 10 team?

Maryland 27, Wisconsin 10 The boxscore shows a relatively even game, BUT Maryland blocks a punt, field goal, and gets one of the easiest interceptions you’ve seen. Luke Fickell is done. The boo birds were just apathetic, which is worse than booing. 61 rush yards for Wisconsin on 42 attempts. 

Oregon 41, Oregon State 7 Oregon State has fallen on hard times since college football ejected them. This game looked like a controlled scrimmage. Is Oregon really good or just beating up on bad teams? We’ll see how Oregon does during a whiteout at Penn State next weekend. 

Notre Dame 56, Purdue 30 Purdue’s defense is really bad. Purdue is Purdue. 

Iowa 38, Rutgers 28 Iowa returns the opening kickoff for a touchdown and could not stop Rutgers’ QB. Both teams went up and down the field, what is happening?? 

USC 45, Michigan State 31 The boxscore looks a little close but MSU gets a 75 yard drive down three touchdowns. Mostly a blowout. The Spartans’ defense did not have answers to USC’s running game. Aidan Chiles had some explosive plays. 

Washington 59, Washington State 24 Another Pacific Northwest rivalry that college football has ruined. Does Washington have the best complete package for skill position players in the conference? We don’t trust Ohio State’s run game.  MUSIC:

• "Wave Goodnight"—Jeff Rosenstock
• "Alien With a Sleep Mask"—Batboys
• "Big Dipper"—Built to Spill
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Special Guest: John U. Bacon.

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklar Brothers, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: Karl Kingson

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts around 12:15 pm

Play a weird nickelized version of the Rock Long 3-3-5 that has a 235-pound former Indiana linebacker at edge and moveable guys who like to get upfield up front. If you get them blocked up correctly there are ways to gash them. The best team to use against them would be 2023 Michigan—definitely think El-Hadi being out will have an effect. Run the QB?

starts at noon

Dylan Raiola is a year 2 five-star but hasn't taken that next step despite Nebraska spending a lot of money to put talent around him and gave him Air Raid expert Dana Holgorsen, but they weren't that impressive vs Cincy. Their transfer OL haven't worked out, and they're not sure who's their LT. Those receivers are legit though.

starts around 12:30 pm

Bacon has a new book, so we have him on to talk about the haunting story of the Great Lakes' most famous shipwreck, and the lives, loved ones, and Dodge Chargers that were left behind.

Pre-Order Link: http://johnubacon.com/

starts when we're done with Bacon

They put the air back in the ball. Underwood runs make the whole offense easier. CMU offense wasn't much of a test, but we got to try out the Barham at Edge thing, and want to see it transitioned to the next phase. Also need to talk about QB runs and why Michigan hasn't been able to fit them.

Karl Kingson is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist whose work blends music, film, and visual storytelling into cinematic experiences that move both the heart and the body. With a sound rooted in R&B, pop, and alternative scores, Karl creates songs that feel like stories — romantic, mysterious, and timeless. His debut single STARE exemplifies his vision: a fusion of soulful vocals, striking visuals, and performance art that transforms love into a cinematic universe. Beyond music, Karl is a visionary creative and cultural architect. His projects span bold promotional campaigns, immersive live events, and fashion-forward collaborations, always grounded in the energy of Detroit and the underdog spirit he represents. His brand essence is motivation — inspiring audiences to embrace their value, chase their dreams, and connect through authentic artistry.

Songs:

• "Open Medium"—Karl Kingson
• "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"—Gordon Lightfoot
• "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)"—Looking Glass

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Biff Poggi love: We don't often get honesty about what they did wrong.
• Let Underwood cook? Not sure if it's going to hold up because people revert to learned behaviors when stress gets high. It's easy against Central.
• We saw enough that Oklahoma should be a blip: the RPOs are real, the zone reads are real.
• QB run game: Forces defenses to make themselves easier to read, because they have to play 11-on-11 unless they can two-gap at the DT spots.
• Oklahoma and Nebraska are good at messing with a quarterback's reads, and Bryce wants to make them quickly. Take away their options and you give Bryce a true read. Nebraska's defense is all about generating confusion.
• Bryce running early on pass reads: good thing, do it. When he's hitting a DB he's the one causing punishment. Also nerfs pass rush: remember how Michigan played Sean Clifford in 2021 and teed off when Allar came on.
• Haynes: been good but frustrating—sometimes he's great in pass pro but he had another handful of purse-swinging. Guy got sick of blocking for his QB at Alabama? I'm sure part of the reason he came here in the first place is he was sick of being a lead blocker for Jalen Milroe.
• Defensively: Barham at the Jake Ryan job was eye-opening. If you can't roll out against a defense they can front the edge on stretch and the running game is dead too. Replacing Nichols snaps with Barham at edge also gets Rolder/Sullivan on the field. Favorite Barham play: he grabs the RB as he's forcing a give on zone read so he can go back to tackling that guy. Caveat: that's the worst running back we're going to play this season.
• QB run game vs Michigan: isn't any one thing, but biggest issue was Rolder not fitting it. He had an up and down game where he (3/6 first downs, maybe 4 were on him), while Sullivan found the guy to hit, but had a few looks at it first. If you're a senior you can't be ahead of that guy and be making mistakes.
• Nebraska preview: They played Cincy (no pass game) and two teams CMU would trounce. Their run D is permeable: defense plays very small, wants to confuse you, make your RB slow down to find his gaps and blocks, and rally from the secondary. You can really gash them. It's a bad matchup for Nebraska: Michigan's OL is good at ID'ing their blocks and wants to play heavy and hit you quickly in the run game and confuse coverage reads. The 2023 game was a blowout because if you have linemen who can ID their blocks you destroy the basis of their system. Would be a good game to have El-Hadi back; Efobi is probably going to have a rough outing.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

Michigan's biggest blowout since the 2016 Hawaii game. This game was trending towards a total rutger for a while and was a nice palette cleanser. More Biff Poggi interviews, please. Listen for the Chip's chips. Do we think "Sherrone's not here so let's play with the kids"? Who's your Crippen comparison, Andrew Vastardis? David Molk? This is what Bryce Underwood looks like when he's not under siege. What did Bryce see on the interception? He had someone open. One of the special things about Bryce is he can just go and get you 20 yards on the ground. Is he putting a little extra zip on the ball? McCulley had a couple nice catches, other guys need to catch the ball. Running backs did a better job of re-gapping in this game. The offensive line had a nice day with some [redshirt] freshman mistakes. Jadyn Davis played several drives with no passes. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 44:32

Couldn't quite get a total rutger but felt like it would for a while. They played a 3-4 for most of this game. Jaishawn Barham found the backfield a lot. Manuel Beigel had some meaningful time in the first quarter. Central Michigan ran a lot of down G. A lot of guys were hurt in this game but backups looked good. Michigan has a little Channing Stribling now. Rolder was up and down but had some good stops. Does Biff even understand Batman's hero abilities work?? 

Starts at 1:05:11

Takes hotter than the Georgia Tech radio announcer after the bees hit a fire drill field goal from 50 yards and they SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE THIS. There's a list of things you can't bring into the stadium but they're handing out versions of the thing! Someone teach the students how to do the wave and when to do it, we didn't even get a fast or slow wave. And not when the game is happening! We like Jake Butt as a commentator. What's Semaj's plan when he's fielding punts? Definitely a sad field goal. 

Starts at 1:38:31 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Nebraska 59, Houson Christian 7 Maryland 44, Towsend 17 Penn State 52, Villanova 6 Penn State is struggling to convert on 3rd down on Drew Allar's arm. Rutgers 60, Norfolk State 10 Iowa 47, UMass 7 Indiana 73, Indiana State 0 ISU with 77 total yards, not a total rutger. Oregon 34, Northwestern 14 Most of Northwestern's yards were in the 4th quarter while down 34-0, but Northwestern had a pulse at times. Alabama 38, Wisconsin 14 No Billy Edwards in this game. Wisconsin couldn't do anything, this was a debacle. If they don't beat Maryland, do they get a win the Big Ten? USC 33, Purdue 17 It wasn't particularly close, but Purdue had some long drives (that ended in picks).  Michigan State 41, Youngstown State 24 This was a bit of a game for a little while?? Michigan State was always in control but gave up some big plays. The Spartans lost some starters to injuries. Ohio State 37, Ohio 9 The score looks close but it was not. Ryan Day's decision making kept the scoring low. Illinois 38, Western Michigan 0 Is Illinois really a top 10 team? Which Memorial Stadium is the real Memorial Stadium? California 27, Minnesota 14 A game that was fairly even statistically except for a couple turnovers.  New Mexico 35, UCLA 10 UCLA is BAD bad, and they fired their coach. This was not a fluke. New Mexico got pressure on 52% of Nico's dropbacks. The Big Sky says "no thanks" to adding UCLA. 

Featured Musician: Jim Cherewick

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] 

---------------------

starts at noon

They rotate a LOT. Get ready for two offensive lines, three quarterbacks, and a lot of Iowa from the former Army OL coach whose YouTube clinics have been a staple of my learning diet. Fullbacks!

starts around 15:02

MAC version of Hutch, or a poor man's Braden McGregor is Holdman, the SDE who has to play B-gaps because they don't have the size. They're in a 404 Tite and they're aggressive, so expect something like the Army 2019 game.

starts around 26:10

What it looked like on first watch. Frustrating that we don't have answers for Dantonio stuff. Felt like Hoke era offense. OL was okay save for Zack Marshall; he wasn't ready and we missed Marlin Klein. RBs were not pressing gaps, Haynes missed blocks in pass pro.

starts at 44:43

Couldn't fit the QB run game. A lot of that was unbalanced, and Michigan didn't use the same response to that as usual, probably because Jayden Sanders was at corner and they didn't want him to be the free safety. Some Dammit Wink but I expect Guy to chip. Weirdly bad games from Benny, Guy, Moore. A little worried that Tre Williams still thinks he's a Clemson d-tackle. 

A local artist, writer, and musician, Jim Cherewick has been involved in a lot of projects around town—Gymsee, False Figures, Best Exes, Piner, Wicker Chairs, and Congress. I discovered him because I liked his watercolors, and then saw he's playing at the Pig with Cattywampus in October so I started checking out his stuff and have been writing to it all week. It's all indie but all sounds different—the best way I can describe it is you start with a guy and a Fender and add a My Bloody Valentine slider that goes all the way up (Congress) or down (Wicker Chairs). I chose a spread to show what I mean. I'm still in discovery mode here but hope you'll join me.

Songs:

• "Death Wagon"—Jim Cherewick
• "Urgency"—Wicker Chairs
• "Pile of Me"—Congress

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Story time with Craig: Where the name Sooners comes from: it's the guys who cheated to get to the land stolen from the Indians.
• Oklahoma: Ultraconservatism made it feel like they're not trying to win this game. Every time they got to a decision point they made the conservative call. They ran on 3rd & 6, got four yards, and kicked a field goal. They punted rather than give ZVADA a shot at a 55-yarder. They kicked (and missed) a FG with 3 minutes before the half on 4th & 2 instead of trying to end the half.
• You've got 7 guys on the LOS and the CBs are off: you have to take that.
• Probably going to be a blip: you have to have a lot of confidence in your defense to play the way Oklahoma did.
• Michigan's gameplan: do all the things you do with a freshman QB. Oklahoma's gameplan: take away all the things people do with a freshman QB. It felt like a Dantonio Quarters where they have a safety who only cares about your run game and our disjoined offensive gameplans from years past where we don't have a plan to deal with aggression.
• Defense: Every vet played worse than his norm. Didn't know how to fit their gaps vs a +1 run game.
• Brian: That's the +1 run game. They ran Mateer 19 times—that is going balls to the wall.
• PFF scores: We don't agree with them. Grades for OL: Crippen and Norton were okay, Efobi okay, Sprague 2 big bads, Gio was good until he got hurt, Z-Marsh is not ready—Klein was a big loss as a blocker.
• Underwood: worse on the review than we thought. He missed some early reads and then Oklahoma sped him up. Also had major fetters on from his coaching staff. Once they're more confident in what they're seeing they'll trust him more. He can't read a smash route right now, so it's a pickle.
• Disappointed with Chip: You're supposed to be the guy who Malzahns our offense.
• Sam: they're playing the 2023 Penn State game. Difference in that game was Michigan had the top two defenses in the country. But that 2nd defense is on the field: Benny, Guy, Moore, Hausmann: That's the 2nd team!
• Defense: Predictable response: put 12 personnel on the field and go 4-wide. Wink needs to learn he can get away with regular-ass nickel unless they have impact blocking TEs. When you're missing tackles and chips and have vets busting there's too much on them. "Too much" may have been Game 2 with injuries piling up at cornerback, Barham out for a half, and playing in Oklahoma.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

How bothered/upset are you right now? Seth says this game was 2004 Notre Dame. It feels like they're playing for 2027 but you need some momentum if you want to get more wide receivers. You want Bryce Underwood to let it rip but instead the offense played way too conservatively. Michigan didn't keep it close, Oklahoma kept shooting themselves in the foot to keep Michigan in this game. Oklahoma knew Michigan would run a bunch of freshman quarterback plays and blew them all up. It's possible that Michigan didn't drop back much because they offensive line couldn't give Bryce enough time and the coaches knew this. Maybe the coaches are just trying to keep Bryce from getting hurt and that means playing conservatively in a non-conference game. Why are there so many runs and screens on 3rd down? Just throw it on 3rd and long and see what happens. How much of the Jim Harbaugh stuff is sustainable without literally Jim Harbaugh? Sometimes Crippen just isn't strong enough for his assignment. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 29:45

That felt like it should've been about 24 points. John Mateer also did some incredible things and came up positive in the random number generator game. Michigan wasn't able to get after Oklahoma's freshman left tackle. There was some cute Wink stuff again that the personnel couldn't execute. He reverted back to some of his ways from early last year. When Oklahoma did run it up the middle the defensive line was what you wanted it to be. Overall, the defense was okay, just not #1 defense in America okay. TJ Guy getting shut down by a true freshman tackle says "we're just not there." Was there much of a difference with and without Jaishawn Barham? Oklahoma seemed to adjust to his absence but Michigan didn't. 

Starts at 53:11

Takes not quite as hot Billy Napier's hot seat. Number changes must be approved by a sickos committee (unless it is to make the quarterback #98). Michigan elected to kick from the plus 38 yard line, this is indefensible when you have Zvada. The point of being Michigan is that you can get that 4th and 2. Sherrone should be old and young enough to have played Madden from the age of six. Go let Zvada (and all the guys who make plays) go make the plays they're supposed to make. There was no mention of Semaj getting targeted and looking woozie. In case you're wondering the difference between running into the kicker and roughing the kicker... that was roughing the kicker. 

Starts at 1:21:51 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Penn State 34, FIU 0 Indiana 56, Kennesaw State 9 Minnesota 66, Northwestern State 0 Minnesota running back Darrius Taylor went out with an injury. Ohio State 70, Grambling 0 Nebraska 68, Akron 0 It should be a little bit easier to run against Nebraska than Oklahoma at least. Wisconsin 42, Middle Tennessee 10 This game was actually close for a while. Wisconsin couldn't run the ball well at all. USC 59, Georgia Southern 20 USC with 11.3 YPP through two games. They have one touchdown per 6.5 snaps. Washington 70, UC-Davis 10 Northwestern 42, Western Illinois 7 Purdue 34, Southern Illinois 17 Illinois 45, Duke 19 Duke is not a terrible ACC team, they outgained Illinois. How valid is Illinois being ranked #11? Duke had five turnovers. Illinois got a first down after Duke had two guys wearing the same number on a punt. Iowa 13, Iowa State 16 This was a perfect rendition of ¡El Assico!. Zero explosive plays between both teams. Neither team got to 300 yards of offense. The same guy kicked the same game winning field goal for the 2nd year.  Rutgers 45, Miami (NTM) 17 Rutgers has scored on 12 of their 16 drives this year. There's a legit passing attack here. Oregon 69, Oklahoma State 3 Mike Gundy complained before the game that Oregon spent a lot of money on their players. Then oh no! Oklahome State is an OSU that looks too much like Oregon State apparently. Michigan State 42, Boston College 40 (2OT) Aidan Chiles can be anything in any given week and this week was Good Aidan Chiles. Is Michigan State's pass defense worse than Fordham's? UNLV 30, UCLA 23 Going to UCLA is telling on yourself. UNLV's first win over a "Big Ten" team in 22 years. Alex Orji's only appearance was one running play. Maryland 20, Northern Illinois 9 Would you rather take the Maryland job or the Virginia Tech job? Would you rather have mayo dumped on you or lose the Mayo Bowl? MUSIC:

• "What's the Move"—Friendship
• "After the Flood"—Jesse Woods
• "Take My Heart"—Florry
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Booster

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things to be said.] 

---------------------

starts at noon

It's John Mateer doing Tate Forcier things in an RPO-heavy system that meets its greatest challenge yet in a defense that doesn't give you any easy reads. Can their haphazard OL with one or two true freshman hold up to Michigan's DL? Can Michigan force Mateer into mistakes? Are his receivers enough to get open for him? Fascinating matchup.

starts around 12:20

The other side of our Spiderman Pointing: their defense is Legit. Venables defense is the older cousin of the Don Brown system: it's 50% Don Brown's cover 1, which he calls "Brown" and 50% Dantonio's quarters. The DL get upfield in a hurry and the LBs have to make them right, but there's always a safety or two involved in the run fits to collect when you break outside. Best way to attack it is CJ Stroud and NFL receivers but we're probably not there yet. He has two hybrid OLBs so he doesn't get Devin Gil'd but those guys might be susceptible to some Bredesoning.

starts around 12:45

This is where we talk about Bryce Underwood.

starts around 1:10 PM

This is where we talk about College Crappe.

Detroit born (East side in August 1990), and Detroit educated, Booster was exposed to music from an early age from his artist/performer mother, which you can tell because his music is dripping with 1960s (you'll hear that Motown cooing in All Night Long) and 1970s (the funk in Real City) Detroit, and honed himself at the Detroit School of Arts and the music program at Kentucky State University. He's changed his approach several times in his career, but the throughline is his creativity. A musician's musician, Booster is the guy a lot of local creators get their ideas from—like how all the rock bands in Ann Arbor in my day were obsessed with At the Drive-In. You can read more about him here and check out his socials:

• Ig: @imyourboost
• YouTube: imyourboost
• Facebook: @imyourboost

Songs:

• All Night Long   
• Box   
• Real City   

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Bryce: NO CEILING. Most talented quarterback in the history of the program.
• Offense will need to mitigate pass pro, Link was okay against a Keyshaun James-Newby. Think it'll be like 2023 offense.
• OL? Crippen's kind of game: more of a mental test than a physical one, because New Mexico had to slant and stunt etc.
• Will need to use Bryce's legs in Oklahoma.
• Chip: Made Michigan's normal stuff work. Everything is packaged now. Did a good job of keeping Bryce calm.
• Defense: UNM wasn't running sustainable offense. Payne and Etta took advantage of physical matchups, a little disappointed in the other DTs (UFR is coming at noon).
• What UNM was doing was playing 2-3 TEs to get Michigan's 5-2 personnel on the field so they could spread them out and attack Guy.
• Jyaire: Really good but for two bad plays.
• Eyes on Cole Sullivan and Nate Marshall.
• OKLAHOMA: Mateer is a Tate. He's going to have to make plays because their OL has some if's: both Ts should be back—sounds like those were both precautionary—but they might have to play a 2nd true freshman at RG (moving the RG to LG).
• Oklahoma offense is an RPO-fest: They find where you're outleveraged and make that guy's life hell. Can they do that against the Amoeba?

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 1:00

When's the last time you've ever seen an offensive lineman run away from a fight? Probably the funniest thing all night. New Mexico came out like they wanted to make a statement for a new era of New Mexico, and they may have an endless well of College Crappe that they can run. Let's talk about Bryce Underwood, it took one game for Brian to become a believer. Bryce just turned 18 but we're making critiques that you would make about juniors and seniors. He's got a thing for parabolic arcs. We're finally seeing the Semaj Morgan we hoped to see when he was a sophomore. The whole stadium stopped and turned to Brian on the play action pass to Max Bredeson. Bryce is very accurate when he can throw in the pocket, if Channing Goodwin hadn't put his hands up the ball would've just gotten stuck in his facemask. They're not running Bryce but then he's throwing a monster block with his throwing shoulder. Offensive line kept Bryce from getting lit up so that's a W, especially against a couple decent transfer edges. So was Justice Haynes worth the price? Overall, Channing Goodwin was encouraging. Fred Moore had a bad drop. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 51:04

A little tricky to grade the defense. They gave up some stuff but some of it was aided by the officials. Wink seemed to struggle with the College Crappe a bit, but Ohio State doesn't run that and you need Wink to beat Ohio State. QB Jack Layne was a fearless dawg who kept getting back up all game. Michigan had a lot of rotation all game. Brandyn Hillman hit a guy hard enough that you didn't need Grapentine to tell you who it was, Jyaire Hill got beat. Enow Etta played more than was expected. Seth got deported from the Vatican once. Jaishawn Barham is probably the worst person to get hit by on this team. The defensive line doesn't have a superstar but it's deep like the 2022 line. 

Starts at 1:17:56

Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium after Jaishawn Barham got ejected. Michigan punted on 4th and 1 on their own 49, three thumbs down. Andrew Marsh fumbled a kickoff and hesitated on one he brought out but he's a true freshman so it is what it is, it'll get better. Hudson Hollenbeck was fine, there's room for improvement. Discussing the targeting call, note that this was recorded before the "upheld" decision. Oops, we've been pronouncing "Sprague" wrong apparently. Maybe we midwesternized his name. 

Starts at 1:58:00 There are too many Big Ten teams so there are fewer notes for some games.

Purdue 31, Ball State 0

Maryland 39, FAU 7 The Maryland freshman QB looks pretty decent. Total yardage was somehow even. Penn State 46, Nevada 11 Penn State might be a boring team to watch until they play Oregon. Iowa 34, Albany 7 The Iowa QB was still pretty pedestrian. Oregon 59, Montana State 13 USC 73, Missouri State 13 Welcome to the FBS, Missouri State. Illinois 52, Western Illinois 3 Northwestern 3, Tulane 23 Preston Stone had -42 rushing yards. The Northwestern head coach says to "believe in this quarterback". Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14 This Indiana team feels less explosive compared to last year. Washington 38, Colorado State 21 Jonah Coleman had 177 rushing yards on 24 carries, the Huskies are looking more explosive this season. They could be Pacific Chaos Team but their defense is still suspect.  Utah 43, UCLA 10 "Committing to UCLA is telling on yourself", Nico Iamaleava was 11/22 for 136 yards, 1TD/1INT. UCLA is still who they've been. Utah was 14/16 on 3rd down conversions. Michigan State 23, Western Michigan 6 Michigan State struggled to stop Western's edges. 138 yards in the last nine drives isn't great. MSU did get a 21-0 lead early, though. Rutgers 34, Ohio 31 Not a great start for Rutgers. Overall, an exciting game. Minnesota 23, Buffalo 10 This is much more of a blowout than the score indicates. Minnesota QB is 19/35 for 290 yards (2TD/1INT). Buffalo is a good MAC team, too. Wisconsin 17, Miami (Oh) 0 Billy Edwards is injured and Wisconsin struggled to move the ball. But Miami struggled more. Nebraska 20, Cincinnati 17 Dylan Raiola was 33/42 for 243 yards but it was mostly to the backs. Former Indiana QB Brendan Sorsby was the Cincy QB that threw the final interception. Half the event was that Taylor Swift was here. Ohio State 14, Texas 7 336 yards for Texas, 203 for Ohio State. The Buckeyes can't really run the ball. There was some "oh no" from the Ohio State fans. Texas got stopped four times on 4th down, twice inside the 10. Texas also has two massive facemask penalties. Ohio State also had weird drops from the receivers. When's the last time Ohio State had less than 200 yards of offense? MUSIC:

• "Sunday Eve"—Bonnie Calista
• "Spin Me Around"—The Marias
• "River Song"—Dennis Wilson
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Featured Musician: Magic Toaster

THE VIDEO:

[After THE JUMP: Things to be said.] 

---------------------

starts at the top

They've got a very 2022 Colorado State vibe after importing a Big Sky team. We like their Big Sky RBs better than MSU's. Mikey Keene-ish QB wasn't the reason they gave Oregon trouble.

starts at 11:24

The wily open defensive end is. The rest of lines and their secondary are terrible, save a Bruce Feldman Freak who had six kick return touchdowns in the FCS.

starts at 22:58

We're so into Metcalfs. Shark Teeth mode now with players behind players. Only thing is they don't have so many superstars—just good guys all around. Can Jyaire Hill step forward into one? Benny? Derrick Moore is the one EXTRA guy that we can't lose.

starts at 35:50

Surviving Evan Link.

Songs:

• Saturday Night
• Anything's Fine
• Blue Night Oberon

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

• Craig Ross introduces the MGoBlog Rub Some Dirt On It player of the week.
• What's the offense look like with Bryce? Not a spread, some RPO, some downfield passing, most of that off play-action.
• Opponents are going to bring safeties down—Oklahoma runs a Venables defense that wants to attack, so you have to punish that.
• Remember 2021 Georgia when JJ came in? He had some simple reads, but things opened up because he could physically get certain types of throws further downfield, increased the spacing between receivers.
• RPOs? Chip Lindsey's job is to make what you do work, not rewrite the offensive script. There will be tag RPOs where the read is more of a "run-unless"—it's not going to be like Stanford's long mesh where the read is the point. It's a check on bad behavior so they can do their thing, which is run off-tackle.
• Sam: Program philosophy isn't to allow the defense to set what you're going to do.
• Brian wants to see Bredeson used on those Aaron Shea dumpoffs more often because you freak out when he's coming your way.
• Mikey Keene? He's got a shoulder injury. You don't get to choose when the injury is healed; he will probably be the QB2 when he's back.
• Brady Norton: Not like last year. If they were down to two RGs and they were Efobi and Hattar and Norton won it would concern us, but it was Efobi-Norton two weeks ago.
• Concern is left tackle; they were talking about replacing Link with a true freshman before Babalola got hurt. Evan Link will start, Blake Frazier will play; Blake has to prove he's durable because he's coming off a knee injury, and he has to be stronger in the run game because he's 290-something. If Link isn't clear of Frazier right now that's an issue.
• DT depth chart: People were surprised that Trey Pierce was ahead of Damon Payne, but we've been saying that all offseason. You want that: Trey has eligibility next year and showed some talent.
• Opening weened for CFB: What's up with Ohio State and their new coordinators? Probably going to be fine with Hartline because he will just say throw it to Jeremiah Smith and…yeah that works. Matt Patricia has two great players in the back-seven but they are going to be just okay at D-tackle (I like the end they picked up from UNC).
• Maybe Matt Patricia is here to bottom out the culture, because as soon as he left Detroit and Philadelphia those locker rooms become two of the best in the NFL.
• Quick New Mexico preview: They have a 246 pound defensive tackle and a backfooting QB who's going to punt it up to a former Iowa receiver that might be injured.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:54

• New Mexico. Former Wisconsin player who was at Idaho takes over, brings the QB and the DE who gave Oregon problems last year. Keegan Johnson used to play at Iowa.
• Oklahoma. Spiderman pointing game. Their defense was great and their offense just as terrible. Mateer the savior doesn't have WRs and his OL is highly recruited and young. They spent a lot for Damonic Williams at DT, have a great FS and iffy corners. Punting and arm-punting is winning?
• CMU. New coach is the former Army OL coach, interesting dude who sends his coaches home at 5pm, got all local coaches because he wants to be there a long time. Got an Iowa QB.
• #18: Purdue. Odom: Why? Team was falling apart already under Walters and got gutted. Multi-year rebuild.
• #17: Maryland. Walking Locksley to the gallows season. Inexplicable receiver depth is gone. Jalen Husky (from Bowling Green) and secondary is the relative strength of the defense. How much will Maryland seriously try to compete in this sport or just throw their House money at basketball?
• #16: Northwestern. The2021 running backs are still there. Caleb Tiernan how do you not come home? Edges Hubbard and Anto Saka (getting draft hype) are good. Dillon Tatum late transfer followed Harlon Barnett. Receivers are gone though.
• #15: UCLA. Encouraging second half last year, new belief in Deshawn Foster. But they're back to rebuilding from the portal, look like they have to do that every year. Only 2/15 players with 200+ snaps returned. Did get Nico Iamaleava. They have some access to money, but where's it going? Jalen Berger is their RB!

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 34:54

• #14: MSU. Defense takes a step back, offense takes a step forward, Aidan Chiles could be a budding star. Jonathan Smith probably didn't understand what kind of fanbase he's walking into.
• #13: Wisconsin. Is this the last hurrah of Fickell? They dumped the spread and their best player is a huge RT so that's good; their defense is kind of falling apart so that's bad.
• #12: Rutgers. Schiano has done it: Rutgers is a perennial bowl team! No more Monangai but plenty of parts are back, especially on the OL.
• #11: Minnesota. High-variance offense, Koi Perich is an All-American. If a few of the transfers hit it's a strong defense. Could win 10 games vs a bad schedule, could also be just fighting for a bowl.
• #10: Nebraska. Raiola year 2 has a lot of weapons. They really spent to get him some WRs, Dane Key and a contested catch guy from Cal. Still going to be a 3-3-5 but playing tiny. The problem is their DL coach left and took the DL with him.
• #9: Washington. Only Big Ten RB to return, really like them. Also got back Boston. Upgraded from Stephen Belichick to Ryan Walters at DC, have a dual-threat QB who took over last year. Opposite Michigan: no kicker, weak in the trenches. 
• #8: Iowa. Mid! Offense improved quite a bit under Tim Lester, rose to 69th in SP+, had fewer wins because that's not Iowa. "We have a quarterback now!" /runs a waggle.
• #7: Indiana. Cignetti is tough to play for but he was able to rebuild through the portal again with guys who don't have to get to know Cignetti, including a new QB who might be pretty good.

Starts at 1:10:38

• #6: Illinois. Brian is wearing an Illinois shirt after a 10-2 season that was really lucky. Lose their playmakers from a team that was really lucky last year and did most of their work. Paid all these guys to return because they have a very weak schedule. Circle Illinois-Indiana.
• #5: USC. Ewebwuddy Woves Waymond. Scott Frost season where they lost to Maryland, banking on a massive, sorta overrated 2026 class. Have their choice receivers, have their QB in Maiava, have a magic wand to turn their secondary into poop.
• (#4 is Michigan)
• #3: Oregon. Dan Lanning is our top coach in the league but in-game management in Rose Bowl scares us. Doesn't lose bad games. Will be some talent drop-off, do we trust Dante Moore? He's had a year in the program and they didn't import someone. Probably spent the most of anybody in the portal. Bear Alexander at DT is a reason to doubt them; this team has a big potential to come together or completely fall apart with locker room issues. Easy schedule: Play two OSUs but not THAT OSU.
• #2: Ohio State. Have the best player on offense (Jeremiah Smith) and the best player on defense (Caleb Downs) in the country, but do they have a quarterback? Their OL is kinda iffy, but the LT situation looks like a hit, and then two transfers are battling for RT. Run game is meh, trust the pass game. People underrating how much they lost on the DL, but we like Beau Atkinson pickup. LB and secondary have a ton of talent: Sonny Styles and Igbinosun are back. S&P+ #1 because there's talent everywhere. If you're looking for reasons to hate on Ohio State: Matt Patricia is there to ruin their defense.
• #1: Penn State. Drew Allar started very low in our eyes, has improved to okay or mid, and then had a great bowl game. RBs can run in a straight line. TE lost Warren. Receiver is a little iffy, but best OL in Franklin's tenure (not saying much). Kotelnicki is a factor in the offense though. Reasons they're not overrated: defense is filled with talent and experience. Think national pundits see last year, see Big Ten teams that returned their quarterbacks and a strong defense won the last two national championships.

Starts at 1:49:41

Takes hotter than this summer. At seven hours of podcasting we are getting loopy but we still answer most important, breakout players, biggest x-factors, who's your dude, and final predictions.

MUSIC:

• "None of My Friends"—Liz Lawrence   
• "Pages"—Credit Electric
• "A Cold Sunday"—Lil Yachty
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed:

• The NCAA's NOA: Not surprised it was nonsense; not surprised it was just money because they can't risk operating this anywhere that facts matter. Surprised how little they actually had. They only had one two witnesses, both of them whom the report called liars, for Signgate, and one witness, whom the report also called a liar. Whenever evidence was presented it undermined their conclusions.
• This was, from the start, about getting Harbaugh out of college football, because he was not wired for putting up with their bullshit. Sherrone--and this comes off in the report and in his response--is one who knows how to play ball. That's all they want: is for you to tell them they're relevant. If you play ball (Sherrone, Compliance, Partridge) they praise you; if you expose them for the frauds they are, they'll do all they can.
• Nobody still staying it mattered is someone you ever have to listen to again. Michigan got better without Stalions. They were that good because they were better football players. I never want to hear Stalions's name again, because it just takes away from the actual accomplishments of Mike Sainristil.
• Game in Germany? Not 100% sure it's happening. Me: whatever. I'm not gonna go to Europe to see one of my teams; I want to go to Europe to see Europe. 
• Savion Hiter: The balance stands out. He has a Beastquake on his highlights:

• Reminds me of watching Ricky Powers as a kid. Comp will probably be Corum.
• Big Nickel: The math is when on offense removes a slot for a TE they still have a lot of receiving ability on the field; when Michigan matches by removing a DB for a DT they now have to match the TE with somebody else, and thus far it's been the SAM: Harrell, Stewart, Guy. Offenses in the NFL have been exploiting that so defenses have come up with big nickels (e.g. Kyle Hamilton) in place of their SAMs who still have the length to hold an edge in the run game against a TE but can also cover a TE down the field. Mason Curtis has the perfect build for it.
• Questions people ask on the road? How good is Bryce, what will the offense look like, who is this guy Craig Ross?

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:54

Quick rundown of all the options: it's Bryce. Expectations for Bryce: Vince Young as a RS freshman, who doesn't quite know what to do with the ball and gets jumpy when the pressure's on, but you can see the talent. One thing in his favor: he isn't jumpy at all in the pocket, and the overthrows in the Spring Game were out of character. Michigan has to roll with it, but Big Ten average with huge swings. Will he be more like a sophomore by Ohio State perhaps?

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 35:36

Running back has two really good players and then a drop to ???. On the very goods, we love Jordan Marshall and might be underrating Justice Haynes—he's got a lot of Corum in him. He's also got a lot of experience as a lead blocker for a running QB, but that's probably not what he came here for.

WRs are Donaven McCulley and then a big drop to Just-Guys who probably were better than they looked last year. Think Semaj Morgan should be the #2 since he gives you something—F.Moore, Bell, O'Leary just guys, hearing things about the freshmen doesn't give Brian happy feels.

Tight end is the strength of the offense. The spectrum goes fullback: Max Bredeson, h-back: Jalen Hoffman, inline: Marlin Klein, flex: Hogan Hansen. Bredeson kickouts force defenders to overcommit, create bounce opportunities. Klein is an underrated blocker (watch the Reliaquest Bowl). Hansen was open last year, Davis Warren was allergic to throwing at him. Hoffman might be Underwood's secret binkie, can run WR routes and block like an OL.

Starts at 1:18:36

PLEASE do not activate our rule that if two guys are battling for a job and it's won by a third guy it's a very bad sign. Concerning that OL was an issue, and player evaluation was an issue, when the HC was the OL coach. It's not a hot take that Andrew Babalola is going to start at Ohio State, Brian. If Evan Link gets fixed and Gio El-Hadi truly feels more comfortable at LG that'd be great; the latter is more likely than the former, but they don't have better options so Link to start. Crippen is who he is; if his issues were mental then could see Juan Castillo having an effect, but Crippen is mentally there and just gets physically dominated. RG and RT are two really good stories for the future, as Efobi and Sprague (especially Sprague) are on track for excellent careers. Depth at G.

Starts at 1:46:36

Takes hotter than Sabrina Carpenter. Thank you to the Michigan fan who left Dominic Zvada out of the Groza semifinalists so he would come back to be the best kicker in Michigan history again. Punter…wasn't great last year but it's not like Hudson Hollenbeck was better in the one game we saw him, and attempts to get more guys in the portal is a little concerning. Returns should be Semaj, I'Marion Stewart, and hearing things about the UMass transfer Anthony Simpson.

Chip's offense is about building his passing game onto your running game. They'd like to be an outside zone one way/rollout the other way team but they probably can't run outside zone. Need to hit the downfield shots to keep safeties off their screen game; last year they were set up at 7 yards.

MUSIC:

• "Small Worlds"—Mac Miller   
• "Memo from Turner"—Mick Jagger
• "Is the Hugeness Translating"—Floating Action
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers.

Starts at 0:54

A great exercise in bad faith, and deeply insulting to Mike Sainristil. NCAA doesn't want to go to court because they'll lose, so they produced a blustery document to make it about money. Clearly Stalions should not have been part of any organization. If Jim Harbaugh is still the head coach when this comes out they would have had to fire him. But these are clearly minor violations hopped up as an extension of Harbaugh's reaction to telling them to go to hell for Burgergate, and part of a pattern of the NCAA coming after him personally.

We're actually shocked at how bad all of their evidence is: 1) Stalions who's a liar. 2) Joey Velazquez, who recorded Stalions, tried to entrap Partridge, and Partridge proved was lying about their interaction, and for the Level II recruiting violations 3) a player who was broomed from the class whom the NCAA also admitted didn't have his stories straight. The only evidence they had of an atmosphere of noncompliance was an assistant (likely Stalions) saying screw Compliance. When they say the benefit was not marginal they don't even try to justify that take—Michigan got better without Stalions. The report makes its conclusion on the value of this entirely on the basis of the lengths that Stalions went to trying to get film when the guy goes to extreme lengths to pump up his own importance as a rule. Their defining piece of evidence is Harbaugh gave him a game ball, when they also say they found Harbaugh gave out 15 game balls per game to try to make sure everyone on staff got one, and Connor's value was so little that he a defensive ball from Iowa.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

Starts at 16:16

Rayshaun Benny was grading out like Mason Graham—see: the end of the OSU and Alabama games. He is not Mason Graham, but should be able to keep up that sort of ratio because they are so deep they can keep him fresh at the end of games. Tre Williams is a Mazi Smith, M valued him more than Clemson did; he isn't a pass-rusher. Damon Payne is an innings-eater. Ike Iwunnah too. Trey Pierce and Enow Etta are the ones we want to see emerge because they have eligibility for next year. Pierce is on that track while Etta gained weight after getting pushed around last year, is ticketed for the Jenkins role. If a 7th DT plays we think it's Palepale, who looks huge and athletic.

Edge has a floor of All-Big Ten and a ceiling of Derrick Moore turning into a Day 1 pick. He is that freakish combination of technique, length, and athleticism, got better at dropping into coverage last year, has a Mike Morris style of pass rush that should work. Last year he was getting to the quarterback but everyone else got there before him. TJ Guy is possibly the smartest guy on the field, had the most dip of last year, underrated strength, lots of versatility, though hit a ceiling when it came to carrying Flex TEs. Saved Michigan vs OSU. Cam Brandt is the established backup to D-Mo; we're a little iffy on him, but he might be on the Morris track. Backup to Guy is Nichols—clearly the program likes him but unproven. Would like to see Nate Marshall used in a pass rush only role this year. Would like to see Baxter and Edokpayi playing more this year too.

Starts at 50:02

Everybody came back/is healthy after they prepared to lose everyone, so there's a lot of age and a lot of depth. Ernest Hausmann is the glue of the offense, another very underrated player who moves like a nickel and reads plays well. Had to get in better shape because when you're the button you can't be breathing hard between plays—you have to yelling. Barham is the Problem for offenses, because you can't block him with a RB and you have to block someone with the RB. Been caught "covering grass" as we say but has the ability to blow up. Can also spend time at edge if need be.

Depth is incredible. Rolder is your Braiden McGregor-memorial back-from-injury senior who's going to play plenty and play well but start losing time to Cole Sullivan, the next Barham who's rocked up and earning a ton of practice hype after being under-ranked out of high school by 247 and ESPN (On3 moved him up to #112 so I couldn't make him the Sleeper of the Class). Also got Troy Bowles who's got a role as the Coverage LB. And Jaydon Hood has shown he can play. AND they really like the freshmen: Owusu-Boateng is a future Hausmann while Chase Taylor is a Class Sleeper.

Starts at 1:16:28

Replete with options, but each has a question mark. Is Rod Moore going to play? Maybe 2nd half of the season—was 85% at start of fall, has to backpedal, IG video shows him jogging. Assumed he's a nickel but TJ Metcalf is stepping in for him; Metcalfs (Metcalves?) can obviously play, precognition is Sainristilian. Brandyn Hillman is a hit stick, the person offensive players are most afraid of despite Barham on the team. Free safety is either Jaden Mangham, a glider whom offenses didn't throw at when at MSU (probably because you could throw at anyone else), or Mason Curtis, who is a very weird player. Curtis has an extra role as a Big Nickel, i.e. a hybrid OLB who comes in for Guy against 2TE sets to take away those Flex TEs. Might see something from a young guy but unlikely.

Cornerback is the iffiest position on defense but has a super high ceiling with Jyaire and Zeke both with considerable runway. Hill just needs to not bite on double-moves. Berry got comfortable last year, still can clean up his zones and turn getting a hand on passes into interceptions. Depth starts with Jo'Ziah Edmond, a Ryan Walters special stolen from Walters. We think Shamari Earls looks like an immediately viable corner but is on more of a Jyaire development track (also ran track) as opposed to Will Johnson, who was super developed at this stage. Caleb Anderson did not impress us as much as the two #12s who preceded him. Jeremiah Lowe showed some things in spring; Seth thinks Jayden Sanders is going to play more than Lowe.

MUSIC:

• "Turning Heads"—Dem Franchize Boys
• "I Got You Babe"—Etta James
• "Needles in the Camel's Eye"—Brian Eno
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

• What kind of offense should Michigan be? They’re really built to be a 1990s team: strong TEs and FBs, run-blocking OL, big-armed quarterback who doesn’t have to make super-hard reads.
• Chip Lindsey is a balance guy, not a screen guy. He comes in, looks at what you’re doing, and builds a functional passing game around it.
• What does that look like this year? Their base two plays can be the stuff that worked for 1997 Michigan/Kirk Ferentz: Run off-tackle to one side and rollout flood passes with a side of Bryce running out the other way, and some screens and play-action deep shots to keep them honest.
• The Left Tackle conundrum. Seth says it’s Evan Link until Andrew Babalola is ready, Sam says don’t count on that, but it sounds like that would be a mistake—shades of the 2017 tackle problem when their best player at RT was Juwan Bushell-Beatty but he couldn’t pass-protect, and instead of changing what they do around that they went with Nolan Ulizio to start the season.
• They don’t look like a run-first team in practice, says Sam. Well, they’re probably having to practice passing a lot. Remember you can have a 400% increase in passing from last year and still barely hit their 2021 level. Sometimes you gotta be you and let the cards fall where they may.
• News hits mid-show that Michigan will receive their NOI tomorrow. Expectations? Brian: removing wins etc. is off the table. There will be a show-cause for Harbaugh and Stalions because they refused to participate—Harbaugh probably has a lot of unread text messages. Guessing a two-game suspension (which games?) for Sherrone because all they really have on Michigan is the “deleted texts” that he apparently retrieved immediately from an image.
• The math here is Michigan didn’t really do anything. They had a signs guy; everyone had signs guys. They scouted Georgia; Georgia wasn’t on the schedule. The NCAA needs to make it look as big as possible but they really aren’t working with much because Michigan didn’t cheat, Michigan didn’t harm anybody, and Michigan didn’t cover it up. So the NCAA will absolutely maximize the infinitesimal infractions: completely ignore any time served from the Big Ten’s overreaction in 2023, punish Harbaugh for not being present, yeet Stalions, fine Michigan because money isn’t real, and penalize Sherrone for the appearance of hiding evidence. Ohio State will be mad because this was their show from the start and they didn’t get the lynching they wanted, but even when the NCAA is doing their best to be as unjust towards Michigan as possible, but Michigan really didn’t give them anything to work with.

• Underwood v Keene: Craig tries to make the case for Mikey Keene if he's at all better than Underwood; Sam and Seth jump all over him (with history!)
• Sayin v Keinholtz: Ohio State tries to make the case for Keinholtz, we jump all over them and prove they're going to be fine (with history!)
• Young Coaches v Old Coaches: It's good to have a mix.
• That's really all we talked about, actually. Enjoy the history.

• Condolences and love to the family of Greg Glenn. If you recall he came here as the glue guy/energy guy friend of Jett Howard who was supposed to make Jett better. When you talk about losing a 22-year-old whose primary scholarship-worthy attribute was he made other people better, that's a big loss. Craig mentions he met him at media day, thought Glenn was naively honest and open for an athlete.
• New rosters/new weights. Bryce Underwood is 10 pounds heavier already than JJ ever got, will need it to be a runner.
• Michigan going to screen and RPO more? Sure but I think you play man on them, put your biggest corner on McCulley, put a safety in the box, and dare Bryce to beat you. Michigan can make that work by having Bryce hit kill shots deep and by making the high safety responsible for stopping Bryce in the run game.
• Kill shots: Chip likes to turn a route combo that he's shown before into a surprise deep shot.
• Jake Garcia? Was ranked around JJ as a freshman after an odyssey, played early at Miami (yes THAT Miami), but threw a lot of INTs, went to Mizzou then ECU, and threw a lot of INTs at ECU too. Got experience.
• Think Mikey Keene is a much higher floor than we got from Davis Warren/Alex Orji last year.
• Oklahoma: They're us. Great defense, I'm not as sold as everyone else on Mateer. I think their system really beat up on Mountain West cornerbacks, and he has a lot of moxie, but I don't know how that "you don't know what we're RPOing!" offense is going to interact with Michigan's "you don't know what our coverage is" defense. Probably going to be a rock fight because Oklahoma's defense is legit. They play aggressive, the LBs fill in the gaps, and they've got a safety who makes everybody right.
• DL dropoff? Think the edges are going to be the superstars, but Benny is very good and they can rotate. Teams are going to try to lock them on the field but good luck surviving the first four snaps against Benny and Williams.
• Derrick Moore: He was winning his pass rushes regularly but other guys got the stats, had a dropoff while injured, played a GREAT bowl game. Sam says Aidan Hutchinson; I try to tamp that down to "just" Brandon Graham.
• Players say there was a meeting before Indiana where Wink had to listen to the players about how they do things and some of the players had to hear some things, and they all really got on the same page. Defense was ELITE after that.
• I'm mad about Cam Brandt switching to #9, which looks like TJ Guy's #4 and Derrick Moore's #8. What are we doing here Cam? Some of us have to chart in the wee hours. We had a 91, 42, and 8, and the fans knew exactly what we were looking at.
• Blake Frazier at 295: His timeline was always 2026 not 2025; I think we were talking about him as an X-factor and he's got to gain more weight before we put him out there at left tackle.
• Sam's OL right now from right to left: Sprague, Efobi, Crippen, El-Hadi, ….?
• LT: I think they have to live with Link (who lost 4 pounds and looks leaner in a grocery store), until Babalola is ready. Note that Sprague came in very well developed needed until the bowl game (though he was injured early in the season).
• Receiver weights: Kendrick Bell is a sneaky pick for breakout player, Fred Moore is as well. Very encouraged by Andrew Marsh coming in at 190 because his thing is he played vs Texas high schoolers bigger than his 175 size; if he's going to make that work against 220-pound safeties in the Big Ten he's going to need that size.
• Center? I think Crippen is smart, knows all the calls, hit his strength/size ceiling and it's lower than they want to move DTs, and Juan Castillo can't add much more than that. What Castillo can do is get Guarnera ready to push Crippen, but with a freshman QB you want to get the line calls right first, not shoot for the stars. Crippen is our guy, he'll give us a senior Kugler kind of year, and we'll live with it.

• Pre-show: Talking Lions. Sam wants to be talked off the ledge because they let Frank Ragnow retire without a plan for center. Seth says jump, because they probably got caught flat-footed and are going to have to roll with a rookie or Graham Glasgow.
• Big Ten Meetings in Las Vegas: It’s a little too on the nose.
• Tony Petitti’s turnaround: He said Michigan had been punished enough. I think he’s a puppet and the TV people told him you’d better protect the Asset. I also hate that this is how it works—these cases should be judged on their merits and clearly the main considerations are money and power. Craig agrees.
• Sam asks who benefits from leaking this before Big Ten Media Days. I don’t know. Sam asks why would Petitti want that out there and I say probably because, like all of us, he thinks he’s a person, and that if everyone understood his viewpoint they’d agree with his actions.
• Football: What’s the offensive X-factor other than Bryce? I suggest receiver, since they’re only talking about McCulley being a difference-maker, and it’s a little concerning that Andrew Marsh is high on the list of names they bring up.
• The other guys say offensive line. Craig thinks they can be a lot better, and so does Sam. I say I think they’ll be fine but that there are too many ceilings for this year, versus down the road when Babalola/Frazier/Efobi/Guarnera/Sprague have really come into their own. We agree Link belongs inside.
• Who was Michigan’s best OL last year? Seth: Myles Hinton, even if he “liked fishing more than finishing.” Sam: nuh-uh, it was Priebe. Craig: Priebe.
• Basketball: Building with a lot of very tall men. It’s a good strategy to get the hardest position to recruit and develop, if you can get them all to stick around and wait to be developed when the portal is so hot. Seth: you only need one or two.

This episode was recorded at Champions Circle's third golf outing, on a golf course outdoors, so apologies for the background noise. Huge thank you to Alejandro Zúñiga for his production assistance and for sitting in on the first segment while Brian was stuck behind a funerial procession.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where usually record this, and new this week the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre.

Starts at 1:00

Zvada explains why kickers are so much better today: access to technology originally developed for golf that shows their spin rate and trajectory and distance, plus training techniques. Bredeson discusses The Game last year and how they went hunting for gaps, says anyone who plays TE can do all the things they do. Klein turned it up in the bowl game. We get a crash course in kicker and TE lingo. 

Starts at 21:36

Underwood and Davis set up challenges for each other, how they make each other better. Marshall and Haynes were full go in spring, happy splitting reps. Least favorite guy to get hit by: Brandyn Hillman; Marshall was happy that he and Jaishawn were on his team in spring. What role the fans played in Bryce's recruitment. How does money play a role in the locker room these days? How they see the Martindale defense.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 

Starts at 39:43

Keene on preparing to play Michigan: what they could teach each other. Haynes similar thing: what was it like playing against Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Thing they prepared for Michigan: wow, the blitzes! Haynes lists all the reasons he came to Michigan until we tell him "It's okay, the quarterbacks are aware we run the ball." On platooning: I want to be able to run around with my kids after football. Warren on playing Ohio State. New faces in the QB room: type of guys on the team.

Starts at 59:01

McCulley also shares what it's like to be a (true Fr) quarterback facing Michigan (not fun!). O'Leary and Taylor talk about the walk-on experience, what's going to happen with the 15 guys who used to be walk-ons. Other walk-ons who are impressing (Andrighetto at safety). Learning to play WR: you get a feel for where you need to be for the quarterback, playing in space. How much has the offense changed. Who's come along since last year: Tevis Metcalf for sure.

Starts at 1:26:05

HONESTLY THIS WAS OUR BEST INTERVIEW.

Ernest and TJ are starting a podcast. Guy on how many positions you need to know to play OLB. How he and Nichols feel about dropping into coverage. Hausmann shares he's got to be in better shape to be the dot because he can't be breathing hard between plays as he's giving the calls. What were they seeing versus Ohio State. "Ern was going crazy in that game." How do you grade LBs? It was quiet.

Starts at 1:30:14

Crippen how it feels to be The Guy finally (not counting his eggs; he's got to win it). Why El-Hadi is just more comfortable on the left. Babalola on the difference between HS and college, and how he compares to the other guys as freshmen. What's it like being a five-star recruit. How they see the fronts and make the line calls. Why is OL hard: gotta learn the playbook first, including all the adjustments. How to make decisions on the fly: all about communication. Gio doesn't play with a mouthguard so he can communicate better.

If Michigan football had to make a basketball team:

PG: Semaj Morgan SG: Bryce Underwood SF: TJ Guy PF: Lugard Edokpayi C: Babalola/Sprague

Starts at 1:43:41

Rod Moore recovery: 85%. Had to come back mentally before but he's staying as locked in as he can. TJ Metcalf on the portal experience. Zeke Berry on the transition to corner: switching up to #1 was a little iffy at first, but the look is the same, got used to it. Did he see the IU pick earlier in the game? No it was in practice the week before. Still a jack of all trades. Shamari on track, he's picking up all the calls. Receivers to watch? Marsh, Goodwin, Semaj. Who's the fastest guys out there. Who's the biggest hitter: B-Hill, then TJ then Rod. Transition to Wink last year: had to get comfortable with each other.

Starts at 1:55:39

Rayshaun going into this year: he's been out there, acted like a starter from previous years. Tre on difference with Michigan. He loves the depth, no other school had the type of talent he was playing around. D-Mo on playing Edge, started with two of the four positions (Rush, End, Buck and SAM). What would he say to his freshman self? Biff Poggi made this program the same program as at St. Frances. He was injured last year, the production was always there, leading the team in pressures early. Benny on coming back from his injury last year.

MUSIC:

• "Intro (A Star in the Sky)"—Heavy Weighs the King
• "Stand Well Well"—Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
• "It'll All Work Out"—Blake Mills
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Good Returning Core
• Intriguing Recruits
• CHLers

• SO MANY Guys
• Highest Drafted Goalie since...
• Ideal Non-Con Schedule?
• Big Ten Look Around

  MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Zen" -- X Ambassadors ft. K.Flay, grandson
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

• Playoff expansion: SEC and Big Ten are trying to strongarm their 2-loss teams in without having those teams play anybody.
• Seth: Don't care anymore, because once you go past six teams it's an invitational and you've got a playoff champion, not a season champion. Did Team 12 have a better season than Team 1 if they get eliminated? If not you're not a season champion.
• What we should care about—and here's where our needs align with Puppet Petitti and the TV exec with his arm up Tony's ass at the moment—are better games. I like having a Big Ten Showcase where you play the best games that weren't played, and do that in every league, and THEN use that information to make your small playoff field. You can also expand that concept to a national invitational round of matchups. Just get rid of the bracket, which is too rigid, and say these are the matchups we think we need at the end of the season to make our field. The losers can then still play in the bowls, so you aren't stuck with Middle Tennessee State on December 31st when Tennessee ended their season in December in Columbus, Ohio.
• Is Penn State a fraud? Sam: easy schedule. Seth: Michigan's 2023 schedule was the same, with the gauntlet at the end. Just need to come up with a tinpot scandal for them—suggestion: go after them for tampering.
• Why is PSU a favorite? Seth: because Big Ten powers are spending to retain their best players, and getting players because their fans are their superpower. PSU is like us (cultish); Michigan won Bryce in part because he saw how awful LSU fans are to their team, and had been around enough Michigan losses like that to see that Michigan fans stay behind their guys. Penn State fans are the same way. They are behind their dudes. I don't think James Franklin is a top-five/championship-caliber coach, but Penn State fans are a top-five, championship-caliber fanbase, and when you have a superpower you can win.
• Michigan basketball: The issue is their best five lineup isn't a shooting lineup.
• Shooting from the guys who aren't shooters: via Dusty via Sam they *say* they can do it: Cadeau is a 40% shooter on catch-and-shoots, Gayle found his stroke again, Yaxel says he's going to show it, Morez and Mara also say they can shoot but weren't allowed to. We believe Grady can shoot, Cason can shoot, and Burnett can shoot, but you don't have any lineups with those three.
• X-factor is LJ Cason and whether they can maximize Mara by having him go hard for 20 minutes and letting Morez take the rest.
• Might want to figure out lineups instead of a five and backups with different players taking on more creation so they don't have to be shooters, while always keeping 2 guys on the court who will knock down an inside-out.
• Shoot more slop please; this team can rebound, so a 40% shot from two might be more like a 50% shot in reality, and that 1 PPP is a heck of a lot more valuable than the 0 PPP you get from a turnover.

Lineup: Sam, Seth, Craig, and Miz. Brian's still on dad duty; Ira's on a plane.

Things Discussed:

• Wink Martindale criticism: The Emotional Rollercoaster sweatshirt from Sack the Stigma is great but Wink is cutting off the sleeves, which are the best part.
• Wink Martindale praise: His defensive approach changed to be much more college late in the season. Can't be in his head but we think he was having guys make reads that they were missing (examples: Zeke Berry nickel blitz from nowhere on the USC TD, or Barham leaving an RB wide open in the flat) and trying to play attention games with Mason Graham (see: the 3rd down sets). That's how the game is played in the NFL but in college it's much more straightforward. This is praise because he realized what was happening and changed what he was doing, which is extremely hard for people to do.
• Everybody was coming from success, so they had to get comfortable with each other. Was a big thing for the player as well. Will Johnson noted some of these players need the A and B explained before you tell them to do C.
• Rod Moore: Expect him to play, not sure how rusty he's going to be and what's the timeline. We'll hear from Rod when Sam interviews him.
• Mikey Keene vs Bryce Underwood: VERY different offensive planning. Kinds of passes are different, how you use his legs is different, how much pre-snap reading you're doing is different. Having Keene out in spring gave the offense clarity.
• Chip Lindsey offense: He uses RPOs and running QBs but he cuts back on the running and focuses on making the QBs more efficient. He also will turn regular routes into long bombs—they missed one to Channing Goodwin in the spring but it was open.
• RPOs and screens? Well you have to show you can beat man coverage to access those, and that means dropping back with a QB who can be safe in the pocket long enough to find his leverage and deliver an accurate pass all over the field to receives who create their own space. Do we have that QB, those WRs, that OL?
• OL: Sam's discussion with Sherrone started with Blake Frazier (because Sam asked) but he also said Andrew Babalola and Ty Haywood are more athletically talented than ANY guy they've had at Michigan until now. Link is battling with Frazier and Babalola for LT.
• Crippen: Not sure how much better he can get because his reads are spot-on, but versus top-of-the-line DTs who knew what's coming Crippen got physically manhandled. He's alright, but you need something on this offense that is better than alright if you want to take the pressure off of Bryce/his protection/his receivers. That said, centers pop late—how many times have we seen an Anderson or Bihl or Kugler or Vastardis have a great 5th year.
• WRs: Are probably a lot better than their stats last year (fewest WR yards since 1973, would have been bottom-third among Bo teams.) But there could be a player or three in there—they didn't have the passing. Warren didn't know what he was looking at half the time and wasn't accurate. Orji had no downfield accuracy at all. Defense knew it.
• Link vs Ohio State/Alabama? Did well, but the context was Michigan took dropbacks out of the offense.

REMINDER: Michigan fans won the Charity Bowl, so we'll be getting together with Spencer, Holly, and Jason on JUNE 28, 6PM at the Ann Arbor District Library, then going to Venue for drinks at 8:00. Signup is here so I can give them a final count (we're at ~200 right now), or go to pizzawestern.com.

THE LINEUP: Brian still on break. Seth & Craig & Sam today.

NO SHOW NEXT WEEK: July 4th.

Things Discussed:

• HTTV 2025: Craig's article on 1898 has a surprise for Buckeye Fans, because the NCAA is going to vacate Michigan's 1897 wins ANY DAY NOW.
• Warde with Sam last week: Credit to him for being more transparent. Sam notes he specifically came out of his no-comment stance to put to rest any ideas of vacated wins/championships.
• Our favorite recent commits. Seth loves Alister Vallejo: he's incorrigible. Even has Mason Graham's baby face.
  • Craig likes Bear McWhorter.
  • Titan Davis: really good example of the type of player you see from Lou Esposito: good length and good burst.
  • Marky Walbridge: Most Massachusetts name ever. He looks like a TACKLE—reminds me of Blake Frazier. Sam: I think Blake is going to be the starting LT.
• Philosophy for how to spend your money?
  • Seth: Baltimore Ravens. Start by putting more money to your top players. Positionally, you look at what system you run and where you can get value. Michigan runs the Ravens system, which spent less on Edge and LB to get big-time athletes in the secondary. Spend on a cornerback.
  • Sam: Spend on a cornerback every year, because Ohio State is a receiver team, and cornerback is mostly about talent. QB, Edge, and Cornerback.
  • Seth: if you can develop edges you can save money there. If you're struggling to develop something you spend on it (e.g. OSU with
  • (Break: Naming the people who are in our chat)
• NIL Clearinghouse. The ADs don't even know what the standard will be. Guessing it will be like every other NCAA enforcement attempt, IE they will ignore 99% of it and then come down hard on Michigan when they're mad. Next battleground is in legislatures.
• NBA Draft: Wolf slipped to 27th but only because the Nets had 1/6th of the picks and could slot him lower. Took another Jewish guy right before him. Top of the draft: Ace Bailey was the last difference-maker; if he won't play in Salt Lake they can trade him, but the value dropped after that.

Warde Manuel kindly filled in for us last Thursday so Sam invited me on this morning. We mostly discussed the article he wrote for HTTV 2025 (now Kickstarting) about Michigan's recruitment of Bryce Underwood, and all of the things that had to come together on Michigan's end to make that possible, as well as an assist from LSU and Michigan fans that nobody expected to close the deal. Also discussed every other feature in the book.

Things Discussed:

• House: We're in prime recruiting season but schools are starting to tell kids the distribution money isn't coming to recruit against Michigan.
• What's the holdup? In a vacuum liars will come up with B.S. to sell. We're sure Ohio State is pushing for some kind of system where they can go back to exploiting a black market and controlling the enforcement mechanism so that Michigan won't/can't participate in it.
• Best guess at what's holding it up: they're trying to make a clearinghouse that won't the agreement immediately sued out of existence, which is tricky because any regulation of what people can make without Congressional dispensation tends to lose in court.
• Playoff expansion: Why, who, will it? Petitti is a dumb TV suit and put out a dumb TV suit idea so he can make this end-of-year playoff to get into the Playoff. No this is not the Showcase (which is a +1 format to finish the season with the best games that weren't played and determine a conference champion by strength of season). Sankey is predictably honestly dishonest in that he'll keep saying and doing whatever gets more for his schools, and that means he's going to run absolute circles around Petitti the spineless moron.
• Why are things this way? Powers in control are approaching it from how much more TV inventory can they generate, don't think about where the value is coming out of except they're very protective of their own money. Schools imagining themselves #16 and dealing with opt-outs. Who really pays: fans. Fans who buy another expensive last-minute ticket, and travel.
• For years nobody in power has put any thought into what really makes college football valuable, so they're willing to cannibalize the Every Game Matters. Already happened with 12 teams, where Ohio State finished the season with a worse strength of record than Oregon and shouldn't have had a path to redemption.
• With 16 teams you're going to get a 3- or 4-loss champion who gets hot or beneficial matchups in a year with a team that went 14-1. Also guarantee Sankey will know how to get an 8-4 Ole Miss team that played three Sun Belts and an FCS with one ranked win in the SEC ranked above a 10-2 Iowa that beat nobody because they were in the "Not playing Michigan-Ohio State-USC-Oregon" tier when Petitti was making his schedules for inventory.
• Our dream: If Congress were to demand your conference can't have more than 12 members or you can't pay anybody.
• In the break: McKenna
• Yaxeltalk: Watching his film last year there was a lot more Buzz Williams ball where they would Iso then rebound. Hopefully he gets better looks with better creators on the court with him.
• Don't forget defense: Yaxel's length makes him switchable, and you have some major rim protection that won't have to get tired.
• Need to develop 36%+ shooting so opponents don't just collapse, because Yax isn't an off-the-dribble shooter at all. Can Gayle? Can Cason? Freshmen? Nimari is who he is.
• Kobe Assist team: have guys like Gayle, Cason drawing multiple defenders and there will be a lot of opportunities to "pass" the ball to the basket.
• Turnovers again? There are some Danny Wolf howlers from Cadeau but hoping they can coach him to better options.

• On early: Talkin Detroit Tigers.
• How this went down: Yax started with college as a fallback, Michigan visit shifted things.
• NBA side of it stayed—if anything the measurements at the Combine improved his NBA stock.
• But Michigan convinced him. Laid out the red carpet. Coaches went to the Combine to support him.
• Did we out-recruit the NBA? Yes, because the NBA wasn't recruiting him, and we are very good at recruiting.
• Good sign for the future: Dusty May knows how to convince a fringe NBA guy to come back to college. Going to have an advantage when they're the competition because we're always going to want these players more than the NBA for the same money.
• What does this do? Cross between Danny Wolf and Johni Broome. Danny measured 6'10.5, but Yaxel is 6'9", much better about turnovers, much better free throw shooter, better face-up guy, close to that level of defender.
• Team: Cadeau and Yaxel are your creators, need Cason to be a breakdown threat, need Gayle and Nimari to be your finishers, and then center is Johnson's defensive presence.
• Big Ten next year: Purdue is still #1, they are going to have a 7'3" guy from Belgium so they don't die whenever TKR gets in foul trouble. Michigan is in that tier with them.
• Proven shooting on this roster? Uh, Tschetter? Need three or four of Cason/Gayle/McKenney/Burnett/Grady to be that.
• Minutes? Cadeau most of them at the point with Cason taking some. McKenny backup up Gayle and Nimari at the SG spots, Tschetter backing up Lendeborg, Johnson/Mara at center.
• Upside: Team is all about creation: Cadeau, Lendeborg are creators, Gayle and Cason are secondary creators, McKenney has that upside.
• Rotation: 8+2 like Dusty likes. Think they'll work in the freshmen some but Goodman probably redshirts unless there's an injury, Grady gets maybe 10% of minutes as a spacer depending on how the others are shooting, Trey develops into a major part of the rotation by season's end but needs time to adjust.
• Defensively this team will be a nightmare to play against.

• Tigers: They go dormant for years but then they pop, and you gotta get a World Series when they do. Sign Skubal!
• Craig's long story about golf in Alabama.
• House Settlement: NCAA is going to relinquish enforcement to a commission/CEO run by the commissioners.
• Will it work? Without legislation they'll just get sued again.
• What some schools are going for is to have rules that nobody enforces except against programs they don't like. This was ideal for OSU/Bama/Georgia/LSU who could get a competitive advantage on programs that self-police, and occasionally could be used as a weapon against rivals.
• Who's the CEO? They said someone not in sports—so Condi Rice? Who's going to take this job who's not in athletics?
• Can they create a player's union? Why would the players unionize when they are getting everything they want. MLB unionized because their players were employees; NCAA doesn't control player movement because they want to avoid their athletes being employees.
• NCAA is getting out but it falls to conference commissioners, who are not at all equipped to handle this. They're serving needs of ADs who are complaining about different things. Ohio State wants there to be rules they don't have to follow and Michigan does. Michigan wants to be able to spend whatever they can raise. Purdue wants to have some player control so their cornerbacks don't get poached. Michigan State isn't thinking "oh I need to make sure Michigan and Ohio State don't boot me" and not even thinking about what's best for Michigan State; they're thinking how can we screw Michigan. You're expecting this mix to come up with solutions?
• Clearinghouse won't work because they'll get a flood of lawsuits. Player already have the money; they won't let you close the spigot.
• Answer is legislation that gives the NCAA some kind of anti-trust protection.
• Will it get prioritized at the federal level? Probably not this Congress, but the next one or the next one. State laws are only trying to make their own teams better.
• Sam: Can they make a special class? They had it in student athletes but that got blown up by the states, which is how we got here.
• The players have no incentive to change things because they're winning. NCAA is deathly afraid of the players becoming employees, which is why they can't regulate player movement even with NIL deals.
• The NCAA can't create a student-athlete class. The federal government can. The schools have real interest in getting legislation that cuts off the players' spigot, and that means the fans have leverage now that we've not had at any point in this conversation. What I want them to do (not saying it'll happen) is use that leverage to get things we want.
• What do we want? Guaranteed access to football broadcasts. Our old conferences back. A cap on student fees (this doesn't matter to us but it's a big deal to smaller schools). Schools can't balloon ticket prices by participating in the secondary ticket market.
• What do we want as Michigan fans? Our interests are aligned with PSU/Notre Dame/USC who want the buy-in price to be high but also some kind of cap so that the value of the education makes us the best option.
• Prediction: House settlement/clearinghouse will be a patch, it won't work, and they'll let it play out until they can get legislation.
• Could they get legislation now? Maybe but it won't do anything for the fans—it would be the schools buying up whatever votes are for sale and passing something they write, and odds are it won't be Constitutional enough to survive the players bringing it to court.

• Michigan vs Georgia recruitments revisited: things have definitely changed. We had to move heaven and Earth to get Will Johnson and that was a legacy. Sam shares a story that Harbaugh promised he was gonna be here and that got Will to pump the breaks on a USC-Ohio State decision. Remembering DJ Turner's recruitment.
• Yaxel? Is doing well at the combine. Think Michigan visit changed his mindset from "Michigan has to match" to "NBA has to match," but there's a very good chance that happens. Difference between early 2nd round and late 1st round isn't just money but end of the 1st round is where you find the best organizations, whereas early 2nd round could mean going to Phoenix. If a team promises they'll draft him in the late 1st he's gotta take it.
• If Yaxel comes: Big Ten PoY? In the conversation. Wolf-/Tonje-level impact.
• Forest view: plan on this happening every year, because one player can put you over the top and one way to get that one player is to get the best player in the country who's not in the NBA Draft.
• Speaking of best player in the country who's not in his draft…there's a LOT of positivity inside Michigan about Gavin McKenna.
• What does Gavin McKenna mean, non-hockey fans? He's the consensus #1 player in the Draft and in that tier with Connor McDavid, Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux and Alexander Ovechkin where the franchise that gets him is instantly the team with that guy (Only tier higher than that is Crosby, Gretzky). Why is McKenna going to college? These guys used to play Canadian juniors, but that's a long season in a small town for money that Michigan could match, and for a player who's already guaranteed to be a top-5 pick there's no reason to slog through that when the Big Ten these days has higher competition.
• The example here is John Tavares, who was the CHL rookie of the year in 2005-06 and player of the year in 2006-07, and was the obvious #1 pick in the 2008 Draft then had to go back to the CHL for another year to no purpose. College gives that guy a step up in competition, a year in Ann Arbor instead of Oshawa, and the connections and future you get from association with a university.
• For us, that would make Michigan a focus of the hockey world for a year, and the rest of McKenna's career they'd be like "guy from Michigan."
• Meta discussion on last week's episode and politics based on the (overwhelmingly positive) responses we got from last week: We aren't planning to talk about partisan and identity politics that much going forward—there are certain instances when it's topical and we can't ignore it (e.g. Ono's departure), but mostly we choose to talk about ideas and values, and when they're not politicized nobody notices the politics.
• Penn State > Ohio State this year? We don't believe in Drew Allar. Ohio State's culture is clearly working for them.